Why does Hong Kong use a different spoken and written language?

Question

In Hong Kong, Cantonese is used for speaking and Traditional Chinese is used for writing. However, Cantonese does indeed have it's own writing system (which I've seen in Whatsapp chats, lyrics of music videos, etc;). This tends to cause confusion, because the characters used are treated differently than standard written Chinese.

For example: 啲

My questions are:

1. I've always wondered, wouldn't it be simpler if Hong Kong adapted the written version of Cantonese in place of Traditional Chinese?

or:

2. Incorporate spoken Cantonese characters in the Master list of all Traditional Chinese characters?

or:

3. Eliminate the use of Cantonese characters and instead use just Jyuntping/ Yale Romanization (as in Mainland China, Pinyin input is used)

Answer 1

Hong Kong using Standard Written Chinese instead of Written Cantonese because Standard Written Chinese (SWC) is the national standard. Most non-Cantonese speakers might not understand Written Cantonese

Some example:

English: "I hate him very much"

Standard Written Chinese: "我很討厭他"

Written Cantonese: "我好憎佢"

~

English: "who ate my apple?"

Standard Written Chinese: "誰吃了我的萍果?"

Written Cantonese: "邊個食咗我個萍果?"

I think Mandarin speaker would have hard time understanding the meaning of '邊個'

Actually, some less formal publications like comic and gossip column do allow the use of written Cantonese

As for eliminate the use of Written Cantonese, it is a unreasonable suggestion. Spoken and written Cantonese are important parts of our heritage. They will not be abandoned as long as there are still Cantonese alive