Partial measures do matter; in fact, currently most of the advances are coming from the US. And research can be regulated. Probably noone will catch an independent researcher working alone and not releasing anything, but progress tends to come from teams of experts who have come through elite labs/universities. Furthermore having significant data&hardware seems to be helpful for making progress.
It doesn't require mass surveillance for something like this to work. I'm not saying there are clear positive next steps, just that blanket dismissals on the basis that perfect enforcement won't be reached are silly.
We shouldn't actually trust that positive effects of every technology outweigh negative ones; that seems obviously wrong (think about weapons tech for example).
Yes, in fact we don't have a single cordless phone. We do, however, have a regular phone with a ridiculously long cord that can thus be carried around.