About 10 months ago my brother (this is in Texas, USA) reported to me that he'd seen someone reading the watchtower with a beard in another congregation, but it still wasn't allowed in his congregation. He was sure hoping that it would come to his congregation. I suggested that he just grow a beard if he wanted to, and he started reciting cult nonsense about wanting to help the flock and if he couldn't do that with a beard it wouldn't be worth it, blah blah blah. I further suggested that if anyone prevented him from helping due to his beard it was them hurting the flock not him failing to help. Predictably, this was dismissed without any real rebuttal.
In any event, I do think practicality is winning out slowly - there's a lot of men that want to wear a beard, and beards are undergoing something of a resurgence these days. They're either valuing their personal expression above a bunch of drudgery sold as "privileges" (and if so, it's a shock it's taken so long...) or they're realizing that the shortage of men that care to do the drudgery puts them in a position of power as such a man and they're negotiating perks.