While everything appears almost fine on the outside, the world’s current prosperity is based on various forms of trickery. It is only a matter of time before many countries are changed, for better and worse.
Poor Yerushalmi and other Jews used to eat all kinds of things, such as pigeons and chayos. The Yemenite ate chagavim because they are easy to find.
Therefore, aside from the Torah scholarship aspect, and the mitzvah de’oraisah of recognizing simanei kashrus, it’s important to preserve the Masores for different species, simply so we will have what to eat.
Better safe than sorry…