FAA final rule: Aircraft registrations now good for only 3 years

Bob writes:

Is this going to stop before everyone gives up our hobby?
Or will flying in the United States be reserved only for the rich and
professionals?

Eventually hobby flight will be squeezed out of existence. Just as nobody is
really driving tractor-trailer rigs for fun, or driving trains for fun,
eventually there will be nobody flying for fun.

The main reasons are that too few people are interested in flying to
effectively lobby for maintaining it as a viable hobby, whereas the commercial
air travel industry is immense and well funded and very effective at lobbying.
Commercial airlines see private pilots as obstacles to their own business, so
they will consistently lobby in favor of airlines and against private pilots.
Over time, inevitably, private flight will wither and die.

As you observe, flying for fun already involves red tape and expense that
effectively reserves it to a very highly motivated and/or wealthy elite. That
trend will only continue.