I can appreciate the reasons you have for wanting it. The only problem is when it affects my hiking experience. It annoys the crap out of me to hear it coming loudly from down the path when I just want to listen to nature.
Like the other commenter posted, you can use open earbuds, which I use as well for the same reasons.
As far as wild cats go, they are already pretty good at knowing you are there already without a speaker. Where I live there are many mountain lions and bobcats but I have never seen one close up, same in the California Sierra. In terms of bears, if they aren't black bears then yeah although it depends on where you are hiking. If it's in the backcountry, please pause it when I come by.
It is early in the news but I also read about the US working on directly having the nation transition. Gives me bad vibes as someone who lived through the invasion of Iraq. TBH, I am not very knowledgeable but I assume there's less sectarianism and lack of infrastructure so it is a different situation. Although with all things Trump, it's his execution and competency following through after the immediate ready decision.
