Then you're simply ignorant. Which is fine, because we can't all be experts at everything, but you need to realize that it limits how much useful insight you can have on this issue.
You cannot just "add an octet" to v4. v4 is hardcoded to a fixed address width of 4 octets. The header format is hardcoded with 4 octets for the src and dst addresses, and every single device out there (billions and billions of them) have v4 stacks which are hardcoded for 4 octets.
The telephone network is completely different. Telephone numbers have been variable length since the very beginning, which makes it easy to add extra digits. IPv4 isn't like that, at all.
So what can you do? You can deploy a new IP protocol version which has bigger addresses... and that's exactly what we're already doing.
> People complain about IPv6 because it requires a complete redesign of their networks.
These people are wrong. It doesn't require a complete redesign of their networks. v6 is almost completely identical to v4 in most aspects, including network design. Subnetting and routing in v6 is identical to v4, and the way you design your networks with it is also the same. To get v6 onto your existing v4 network, you just put it there alongside the v4. Your router gets a:b:c:d::1 as well as a.b.c.1, and your hosts get a:b:c:d::x as well as a.b.c.x. Firewalling works the same. You use TCP and UDP like you do in v4, and those work the same too. No redesign is needed.
It didn't have to be this way. There were various proposed alternatives for next generation IP which had variable length addressing, a different routing model or more weird and wonderful features, but we went with a protocol that worked the same way as v4 did.
> 3. Come up with an easier solution that doesn't require a complete redesign of how networks work.
As mentioned, this is what we did. But you're right, people want a unicorn. Even when you do the exact things they suggest, they still complain.