This was a great read! I can strongly relate, because Finnish has a written standard (kirjakieli), a more relaxed spoken version of this called yleiskieli (common language) and the local dialects (puhekieli). These 3 versiona are mostly mutually intelligible but are so intimidating for new learners.

I wonder if other languages like English will eventually go the way of having a written standard. It seems the spoken language evolves a lot quicker than it's written standard.

I'll be following along for your next update!