[dorchadas]

The issue I have with 'ghoti' is that it doesn't make the sense they claim it to. The digraph <gh>, for instance, is never /f/ at the beginning of words, so it'd make no sense for it to be /f/ here. These graphs only have their set sounds in certain places in the words, and they can't be divorced from that. It's precisely why nobody would say 'fish' as 'ghoti'.

[tartoran]

It's clearly a joke at the English spelling expense. Why does gh in the first place pronounce /f/ at the end of a word?

English is my second language. At first I found English quite easy: non-gendered nouns, simpler tenses, etc. But, after 25 years of using it it still shocks me at times. If you see a word for the first time you can have a guess how to pronounce it, but you could never be certain without consulting a dictionary.