I certainly haven't conducted street surveys of any kind, but yes I actually have asked people in a polite and kind manner why they are wearing mask outside. I did this when I would go pick up my son from his school and we all had to wait out front in about half of the parents were wearing mask while waiting outdoors. As I recall this was in May. I did ask a lady whose daughter was in my son's class. She bluntly stated that it was due to an abundance of caution regarding the virus. In neighboring Boulder County, it was mandatory to wear a mask while picking up children outside of school. I know this for a fact because I accompanied a buddy to pick up his daughter one day and we had to wear masks to comply with the school regulations.
I find it odd that you are expecting me to have a null hypothesis that the masks that have become widely worn in large cities in the midst of a pandemic are not related to the pandemic.
If it was remotely common to see people wearing face coverings 2 years ago I would understand your point. It wasn't as we all know. It became a thing as a result of the pandemic.
That being said all of the explanations you offered are reasonable although the cold sore one was rather amusing to me. I haven't had one in many years but I'm sure by the time I get my next one the masks Will be long gone and I will wish they were a thing again.
The aspect of it that does bug me is the performative nature of explicitly putting on masks in outdoor situations. President Biden came to my area yesterday due to the recent wildfires we experienced. He was outdoors the entire time wearing a mask along with his entire team. He's sitting there trying to connect with people who have lost their homes but they can't see each other's faces at all. For no reason at all based on science. The performative nature of this is rather obvious because you frequently see scenes where they are not wearing a mask of any sort until a camera shows up in which case they immediately put a mask on before posing for the picture.
My primary complaint is not people incidentally wearing a mask as they come out of a building but people who are fairly aggressive and demanding that others wear face coverings outdoors whenever they are near them. I had to go to LA for work several months ago and discovered that it is common to have people yell out their car windows at you if you were walking around on a horse trail in a suburban neighborhood (I was somewhere not too far from Brentwood on this trail) without a mask on. My coworker was laughing when I looked at him with an incredulous face. His response was "that's how it is out here."
Anyway you make a good point that I should not be so quick to judge in the case of the exceptions above. Fair. I will concede. That being said requiring people legally to wear them outdoors is stupid and nonsensical and not in line with any form of science.