Why don't we get more user-friendly weather reports than METARs?
One use case where the compact METAR format is tough to beat is rapidly scanning meteorological trends. For that purpose, METARs are user friendly in the sense that they are expert friendly.

For example, a friend invited me to fly with him today on an Angel Flight mission that would have required a landing at Nashville. We had to scrub because the weather is unfavorable and not getting any better according to the TAF and ADDS METAR Data:

Data at: 1616 UTC 11 Mar 2016
KBNA 111553Z 36006KT 1SM R02L/4000V6000FT -DZ BR OVC005 14/12 A3024 RMK AO2 DZB51 SLP239 P0000 T01390122 $
KBNA 111541Z 35005KT 1SM BR OVC005 14/12 A3024 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1 1/2 $
KBNA 111527Z 01006KT 2SM BR OVC005 14/12 A3022 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 2 1/2 $
KBNA 111453Z 02008KT 3SM BR OVC005 14/12 A3021 RMK AO2 SLP227 T01390122 53015 $
KBNA 111451Z 02007KT 3SM BR OVC005 14/12 A3021 RMK AO2 $
KBNA 111434Z 01007KT 2SM BR OVC004 14/12 A3020 RMK AO2 $
KBNA 111353Z 02007KT 5SM BR OVC004 14/12 A3019 RMK AO2 SLP219 T01390122 $

A subsecond scan confirms that the low overcast ceiling is stuck at four to five hundred feet AGL for the past several hours. Try outdoing that using the same information in decoded METAR format.