Your mentioning the word schooner reminds me of a perplexing conversation I had with a barman somewhere in Oz when I asked for a pint of cider. ....Much simpler over here - we ask for either a pint or half a pint.
Pat, anybody who drinks cider by the pint deserves a lot of respect.
On the question of the variety of glass sizes and names for beer drinking, I agree that it is ridiculous and should have been standardised a long time ago but the differences probably had relevance in the past because of customs and laws that existed at the time and people are resistant to change.
The problem with pints in Australia is that we like our beer quite cold and unless you go in for one quick one, if you drink pints you either have to put up with warm beer before you finish your glass or you get drunk very fast. This is not a problem in places like the UK where the beer is drunk closer to room temperature and the alcohol content is generally lower, with a few notable exceptions, than Australian beer.
The half and the 15oz schooners provide a suitable compromise between drinking at a comfortable pace and spending most of your time going back and forward to the bar. I prefer schooners myself although in order to keep my girth within reasonable proportions I drink very little beer these days.
I can’t see any point in smaller glasses although they had a use in past times when it was the practice to drink in larger schools and everybody in the school was expected to shout. Before the 1970s hotels had to take last drinks by 6.00 pm and as most groups didn’t knock off until about 5, this resulted in what was known as the “6 O’clock swill”