Actually newt, I think I do understand your position here, however, I'm sorry, I can not fully agree with you, and mainly because the situation you describe has an element to it I think you might have overlooked.
You see, I think this issue is also incumbent upon how busy a street a person's house sits. If for instance a person lives on a street that, say, has a vehicle pass their home every 15 seconds. That would mean in an hour's time 240 vehicles would have passed that home. And then let's say just 10% of those vehicles are motorcycles, which as you know are probably on average louder than almost all passenger cars and trucks anyway. And so, in that hour's time 24 motorcycles have passed that person's house.
And then lets say that EVERYBODY riding a motorcycle down that road had really loud exhausts on their motorcycle(and in my view, thank heavens they don't) that would mean that every two and a half minutes, that poor guy or gal living in that house would have his or her "peace"(for want of a better word) disturbed, or at least MORE disturbed. And I think THAT wouldn't be "right" or "fair" to that person.(but then again, that's just my opinion)
Now this scenario wouldn't of course apply to people who live in less densely populated areas or who live on street with little traffic.
Now, I suppose you could say that that's what that person "gets" for living in a more densely populated area, or on a busy street.
But, sorry, I don't buy that argument, because not everybody can live in a bucolic environment free of stress and loud noises,and with just the occasional annoyance in which to put up with. And maybe you might also know this, but many recent scientific findings have concluded that indeed loud noises contribute to a stressful environment, and of course, the more stress, the less healthful the environment.
And so...I still just think that those few riders who I feel for whatever reason just seems to possess an overwhelming need to be noticed by running VERY loud exhausts are in effect violating the right to a reasonable measure of "peace" to others. Of course, those who run extremely loud exhausts will tell you that that's because it'll "save their life" somehow, which I still believe is an argument which holds VERY little water. Almost half of all fatal or seriously injurious motorcycle/car collision accidents(seriously injurious to the motorcyclist, that is) are due to an auto driver making a left turn in front of an oncoming motorcyclist, and another high cause is when a motorcyclist stays much too long a time in a driver's blind spot, loud exhausts or not. And..well..there are numerous causes for these sorts of accidents that I believe running a VERY loud exhaust would do absolutely nothing to prevent.
However, to get back to your stance of just "turning the other cheek", or "this too shall pass", so to speak, is to me a...well... a cop out, and an affront, though maybe a minor one, to the idea that it's "not all about me" and that the concept of common courtesy is not all that important, which I believe is quickly going the way of the Do-Do bird anyway in our society.(anybody now wanna start a thread about cell phone etiquette here, maybe?!)
And in those more densely populated areas in our country of which I mentioned above, maybe one of the reasons it often seems the concept of "common courtesy" seems to be more lacking in comparison to the smaller towns in this country, well, MAYBE just a little of that could be contributed to there being more motorcycles, and thus more motorcyclists in those big cities running those obnoxiously loud exhausts, and thus causing more stress into that environment.
(that last part is just a "sociological theory" there you understand, ol' buddy)
And so, in closing, I still stand by my above stated "credo" of: A "Moderation In All Things" philosophy not only will usually make your life more livable, BUT it ALSO usually makes for some of the best soundin' motorcycles you'll ever hear.
