[procrastitron]

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment.

In contrast, Google’s plus codes(https://plus.codes/) provide the same functionality but avoid the most of the pitfalls you mention.

If you wanted to encode the same data using words instead of alphanumeric characters (which is a debatable goal), then you could just combine it with WCodes (https://wcodes.org/)

[toss1]

Yes, just the general about page for the Google Open-Sourced Plus codes makes clear that they have thought of and solved at least a half dozen major issues ignored by the What3 group.

Just check the topics: Free, Accessible Offline, Easy to Use, Non-Exclusive, Independent of Borders, Identifiable, Works in Unmapped Places, Variable Precision, Useful of Navigation (e.g.,nearby places have similar codes). . .

[juped]

Plus codes are also unencumbered. Their main disadvantage is being saddled, branding-wise, to the Google Plus fiasco.