Loud mufflers are a scourge and everyone hates them but we can't get rid of them because companies are making money off of them and they pay the politicians
Mufflers? So there's actually some more nuance to this. Quiet mufflers on ICEs come with some efficiency cost, partly due to weight (for vehicles) and partly due to flow restriction of exhaust, particularly at higher flows, closer to the engines maximum output. Depending on the application, quieter mufflers are not always "better".