[samus]

> like China's done for .. 75 years

China did that for political reasons. The Republic of China used five, and Russia uses two timezones across those longitudes. Similarly, I also find it quite weird that France and Spain are in CET. France shifted when it was occupied in WWII, but maybe it's justified to remain in CET to reduce friction with the economies of its eastern neighbors. Whatever. Vive la weird. Countries do that to themselves.

A deviation of half an hour from noon is barely perceptible unless you use a sunclock. People can roughly estimate when the sun will set by just looking at local time and considering the current season. What throws a wrench in the works is daylight saving time. I fully agree that DST a huge annoyance and that its benefits were always rather situational.