The quiet rule matters most when it protects people who have nowhere else to concentrate.

Rules about quiet can look like fussiness until you notice who depends on them. Anyone with a room of their own can concentrate at home; the person in a crowded flat, a shared house, or a place with no spare corner has only the public room. For them, the silent floor of a library is not a preference but the only workable option they have.

Next time a quiet space feels unnecessarily strict, take your call outside anyway. And if you have influence over a shared space, protect the parts of it that are genuinely quiet rather than converting everything into somewhere sociable.