We would just never know. Hell, the suspicious people are basically proved right by the endless amount of transporter accidents there are. Especially the case of William Thomas Riker.
Tldr there’d be absolutely no way to verify the transporter isn’t actively killing everyone it transports and making perfect clones of them.
It’s not even remotely unrealistic to have people in the 24th century actively avoiding transport, despite it’s obiquitousness.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletransportation_paradox
We would just never know. Hell, the suspicious people are basically proved right by the endless amount of transporter accidents there are. Especially the case of William Thomas Riker.
Tldr there’d be absolutely no way to verify the transporter isn’t actively killing everyone it transports and making perfect clones of them.