Russian native speakers, how does я as a substitute for "e" affect your perception of the language?

I am studying Russian and one of the biggest obstacles to my learning it is the substitution of е with я in unstressed syllables. I am quite sure that there is a large body of academic research on the topic of language assimilation even in the English language, if someone were to replace every "e" with "eh," but I am curious as to how it affects the average Russian speaker in everyday situations.<br><br>For me, я and е are not phonetically equivalent, and я does not sound anything like е. It makes it difficult for me to identify words when they are mumbled or spoken at a moderate clip (I exaggerate, I can barely hear anything at all), and it makes it difficult for me to pronounce the language correctly (I am quite good at pronouncing е, making it more pronounced, etc.). I am going to take a class at my local university, so I'm sure my pronunciation will improve, but it is especially difficult for me because I do not have a lot of practice speaking with native speakers. Still, even when I hear coherent speech, the я е substitution plays tricks on my mind when trying to identify words. <br><br>Are you able to pronounce я and е interchangeably, or do you have trouble with the substitution in certain words? How do you like hearing я pronounced as е, if you can tell the difference? Or do you not notice any difference at all? How do you feel when you hear the difference when a foreigner pronounces я as е, or е as я? How do you feel about hearing я pronounced as like "ya" in "yacht" instead of the sharper я sound you use in Russian, or hearing е pronounced as in "bet" instead of like "eh" in "pet"? <br><br>Finally, do you see any potential for the Russian government to codify я and е as phonetically equivalent letters, or to promote the substitution of я with е in certain syllables as a norm? Do you see any potential for the Russian language to transition towards a more phonetic spelling system, where each phoneme has a unique letter (or digraph), like "c" and "q" in English? <br><br>This is mostly just a curiosity, but I could see this spelling system becoming somewhat of an obstacle for people who want to learn the language from other cultures.