You only hear them if you live near an airport, and only if you’re right under the landing approach or takeoff route. But not when they’re cruising at 30,000ft, or even if you live within visual range of the airport but not under the takeoff/landing path.

This isn't true. Sonic booms are quite loud, even at altitude. The Concorde was audible at its cruising altitude of 60,000ft.

The French used to fly Mirage jets over the sea near where my family used to go on seaside holidays - no airport anywhere near. I don't know what altitude they were flying at, but you could see them clearly - as long as you looked at the opposite side of the bay from where the sound came from.

To be clear, they boomed, and it was loud and annoying.

Fwiw I was thinking of passenger jets, not military planes. I don’t have a good sense of how loud or quiet the latter are.

You're still wrong, or nearly deaf. During the night I can hear airliners between 9 and 13KM up. With closed windows. Through triple paned glass. Sometimes even while hearing music with over the ear headphones, at between 20 to 30% volume. It varies in intensity with the weather, but it's regular.

Edit: They don't need to be directly above me, 10KM to any side suffices. Of course it depends on the type, too. From experience, curiously clicking on flighttrackers to see who was that, it doesn't really matter though, because it goes all the way from small bizjets over airliners and freighters to heavy transports. And then there is the military. Always louder, no matter which. Even subsonic.

So what? The 0 rule is more compassionate than you are, so it cares about the groups of people you mentioned too!