Nah, setting non-standard ports is sound advice in security circles.

People misunderstand the “no security through obscurity” phrase. If you build security as a chain, where the chain is only as good as the weakest link, then it’s bad. But if you build security in layers, like a castle, then it can only help. It’s OK for a layer to be weak when there are other layers behind it.

Even better, non-standard ports will make 99% of threats go away. They automate scans that are just looking for anything they can break. If they don’t see the open ports, they move on. Won’t stop a determined attacker, of course, but that’s what other layers are for.

As long as there’s real security otherwise (TLS, good passwords, etc), it’s fine.

If anyone says “that’s a false sense of security”, ignore them. They’ve replaced thinking with a cliche.

So I’m aware there is a right-libertarian argument at work here that frames all taxes, always, as “stealing”. However, there’s an argument here that can be used along more democratic socialist lines.

Taxation in representative democracy is legitimate when the democracy itself lives up to the terms. We have come to some kind of consensus as a society on the level of taxation and where that money should go. When we do that, and we say the road is “our road”, we mean that in a literal way. A part of the fruits of our labor were diverted to build that road, and we get a say in how it works.

The US is not a democracy that lives up to the term. “Taxation is theft” is correct in this context.