Pull the master slider in alsamixer. I don’t think it will break anything anyway (except your ears if it’s loud). Most audio outputs are AC coupled meaning they will filter out DC and very low frequency which is the most dangerous part for a speaker.

No it interprets the list of filenames as raw sound data which basically makes random noise maybe with a few bleeps when there are patterns

Another take: the discussion shows that quite a lot Linux users use this feature because it makes them more productive. If that feature is hidden away new users will probably never find it. Linux is not the same as Windows (which is why people flock to it right now in the first place) and thus has a learning curve. And I think that’s ok. We don’t have to make it more like Windows, people have to learn how to use it.