"Fewer water" sounds odd now because no-one does use it: but if it were somehow to become as commonplace as "less cookies" is, then I would see no reason to object to it.
I don't think that the distinction between "less" and "fewer" is a significant one: it's a distinction only of usage ("one should be used with counts, the other with quantities"), not of meaning. After all, we're all perfectly happy to say "more cookies" but also "more water".
So if people wish to maintain the distinction themselves, for aesthetic reasons, that's absolutely fine: but I don't think they have a case for attempting to enforce it on others.
"Uninterested / disinterested" etc I feel are worth fighting over, because they can be used to express genuinely different meanings. But I don't think that's true of "less" and "fewer".
no subject
I don't think that the distinction between "less" and "fewer" is a significant one: it's a distinction only of usage ("one should be used with counts, the other with quantities"), not of meaning. After all, we're all perfectly happy to say "more cookies" but also "more water".
So if people wish to maintain the distinction themselves, for aesthetic reasons, that's absolutely fine: but I don't think they have a case for attempting to enforce it on others.
"Uninterested / disinterested" etc I feel are worth fighting over, because they can be used to express genuinely different meanings. But I don't think that's true of "less" and "fewer".