The question wasn't "how to play an F instrument?" it was "how to produce a score that a person who doesn't read in F can play?" Perhaps, before we tell people how to play an instrument, we should find out what their level of interest is. Someone who gets together with a recorder group twice a month may well not have any interest in putting in the work needed to learn a new fingering. Someone who wants to really dig into learning an instrument will likely learn the instrument regardless. And even they might find it beneficial to learn the feel and sound of a bass without having to take on a big music-reading learning curve at the same time.

I used to produce transposed recorder scores for my ex-music partner, who knows very well how the recorders work and who plays about a dozen instruments professionally. It doesn't really scar you for life.