Privacy is far from dead!
Most offshore jurisdictions do not have UBO registers, they hold Shareholder and Director registers which in most cases consist of nominee details. They are not effective at capturing genuine UBO information anyway and only know what they are told. In addition, while genuine regulated agents will have an obligation to carry out due diligence and KYC etc, we realistically only know what we are told. Yes checks are done and people identified, but in reality we as agents rely heavily on the information provided by our clients. If a client is well organised, has considered the information they are passing on, has their own nominee who then appoints an agent nominee for example, it is very difficult for anyone (agent included) to know whether the information available is correct or not.
Even when UBO registers to do happen the same situation exists. How does anyone know that the UBO is actually the UBO. Then you can consider the use of Trusts etc which genuinely alter the UBO and which can legitimately work for you.
Things have always changed, scrutiny has always increased, transparency has always existed and people have always found a way to make it work for them.