The thing is that may or may not be true in China, but it certainly isn't true in Japan. The Japanese have been wearing masks for many, many years and they don't have an authoritarian government. It's cultural more that it is an effect of authoritarian government.
I agree that wearing a mask sucks, but I suspect some are more comfortable than others. Some serious effort needs to go into making masks or other face coverings more readily available. I've been trying to find masks pretty mush so since this all started and I still only have what I happened to have had int he house when this all started. I have stuff on order from several locations, but none have arrived yet. I'm sure many have just given up at this point. But, there will need to be better availability of masks and testing before we can really open back up.
As far as kids, there is no way that they can wear masks all day long so I don't see any options but to continue remote learning until this all calms down. Parents are just going to have to make more effort to teach and engage with their kids. It may be possible to send them back to schools in 4 months, but as L.C. said, we really don't know right now.