I am concerned as to why it being 500 years old wasn’t the first issue.

Just how old are you?

Generally the reason people get annoyed by stuff like this is that:

1. It’s rarely helpful, as the issues they deal with are not the same as the issues you are trying to help

2. They have usually heard the exact same ‘helpful’ information you are giving dozens of time from people they did not request help from

General rule of thumb, don’t offer tips about how to live to people who haven’t asked for them, most people already have methods they are using to deal with it, and unless you are a qualified professional, your advice could actually do more harm than good.

Phillips are substantially better than flatheads though. And they are decent enough for low torque operations, just suck in higher torque applications, as they strip out like mad. Allen is much better for high torque, but a little more fiddly when inserting and removing bits which, combined with there not being a standard go-to size Allen (though a couple sizes seem to be getting pretty common), makes Phillips a bit better when you have lots of screws to assemble.