I'm not following the fuss here either. Again, if this was supposed to be a systemic test of a societal control program; it failed miserably.
If you are conspiratorially inclined, I'd suggest this whole thing is a head fake for the potential tool of REAL control which is the evolving capabilities of digital technology. If I were an evil overlord I sure as hell wouldn't be messing around with mask-mandate tests of control systems (and vaccines for that matter). I'd be employing the best data scientists to continue the already impressive manipulation capabilities of digital technologies. Better yet, I'd already have control of the Directors of companies like Alphabet and Facebook.
The control and spread of misinformation has been the most wildly successful outcome in all this. We're supposed to buy that this was all an inadvertent consequence of ordinary profit-seeking and incompetence. Maybe it was. But now it's clearly a juicy plum, ripe for the picking. I doubt somebody hasn't grabbed it already.