Many of the people who go through the mask on/off ritual in restaurants think they've found a loophole to the rules. They think it's a little victory. They see things differently than us. They have both feet in the Soviet regime. They have accepted it and are trying to find a way around every law they don't agree with, while publicly accepting the authority of the law.
This is the point at which society as a whole becomes decidedly low trust, in the Soviet style. To thrive in this envronment, one must become a Pharisee.