I have been a radio technician since my teenage years and I'm 69 years old. I fully support the concept of licensing. I am also a ham and a gmrs license holder. We have to have standards in order keep up quality and integrity throughout.
Where I live in southern california, we have an excellent gmrs club that now both well over 300 members. We now have coverage throughout the entire region extending to the Nevada border.
In my view, gmrs is far superior to regular ham. Why? Our local clubs are very highly organized, we encourage professionalism, we get together on monthly basis, and over time we get to know each other. We really have a community that works to help each other, educate etc.
We are really better off in case of emergency with our earthquakes and fires with gmrs then with 2 m. Most of our club members are retired cops, fireman, highway patrol, and medical professionals. We have quite a few radio technicians too. We currently are running five repeaters and looking forward to add more every few months