atw: Lets have more respect for the greengrocers apostrophe's

The greengrocer's apostrophe is derided on this and other lists as a symbol of the ignorant misuse of the English language. But could we perhaps be seeing the start of another of the great simplifying changes that have taken place in English? In our haste to enjoy the pleasures of pedantry and the berating of greengrocers, are we missing something? The point is worth a little speculation.
Apostrophes are used to indicate contractions in fiction, or in transcriptions of speech, or informal technical texts. If this usage were to be discontinued entirely, I suspect that not much would be lost: for example, there is not much point in writing "haven't" when "havent" is just as clear. This was a favourite topic of the playwright G.B. Shaw, and the printed versions of his plays contain no apostrophes.
What would English look like if greengrocers ruled and all nouns formed plurals by adding 's? There would be some simplification: there would be no uncertainty about when to use an apostrophe, the its/it's trap (which catches everybody, including technical writers on this list) would disappear, and words would not change spelling in plural forms. Remember the potato/potatoes rule that sank some unfortunate US politician? 

Possessives would be indicates by adding a simple s.
There would still be problems and oddities, of course, notably with possessive forms of names ending in s. This is English, after all... Some non-English plurals, such as concerto/concerti, would persist.
Pedantry about English can be both useful and very entertaining, but perhaps the greengrocer's have a point. Lets be sure we dont miss any new trend's... 


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