WWII P-47 Thunderbolt story

That is a loaded question!!! There are all kinds, some good, some bad. In recent times there's been some REALLY cheap such as Beofang china imports and were finally pretty much banned by FCC.

"It depends." The other issue is many guys liked to/ wanted to use amateur handhelds on commercial bands (back then) as volunteer EMTs or use them on GMRS/ FRS. All this is highly illegal if you get caught

Nowadays the commercial/ public service bands are pretty much digitalized so that adds still yet another layer.

Frankly I have not kept up with most of it. "Around here" the UHF/ VHF repeater systems have been denegrated for a number of reasons, and become quite "clique-ish"