It’s only disingenuous if you ignore all the tenets of ethical clinical study design. We aren’t testing mechanical structures, here; these data points are people. We only test those to failure when absolutely necessary.
In order to really study a clinical variable, we need to run a large randomized study. Any time such a study withholds a known benefit from a portion of the studied population, the risk to that population has to be assessed and weighed against the value of the data.
ETA: your proposal about better masks seems reasonable, but it wasn’t the sole content of your post. You started your post with agreement with a post that stated that, before requiring masking in healthcare environments, the subject needed to be studied. Based on my 30+ years of working on study design for human and animal clinical trials, I don’t think there is an IRB in the US that would agree to such a study due to the risk to the subjects.
