Who practices these days at little mission chapels? Once mass is over its time to scram. And half the people font listen for the lead voice to keep time or tune. 

Directing from the front is an imperfect attempt at a solution. I saw in a 1980's or 90's Angelus a picture of a scola standing up front between the pews at a boys school. Odd since there were no choir stalls.

IMHO, the role of the schola director has been lost in the sense that before V-2 most of the singers could speak Latin (not just read it but speak it a little bit). I think it was taken for granted that the singers would knew where to stress the syllables and give shape to the phrases which in turn give musicality to the chant. The director would make sure everyone was aligned through his gestures. I'm sure everyone can tell when someone is speaking Italian by the accent and shape of the phrases, and Latin should sound pretty close to that. My mother language is Spanish and I speak Italian as well. I moved to the US more than 20 years ago. During these years I have heard different scholas and all of them sing syllables, not words or phrases, and it sounds choppy to my ears. The effect is the same as that of a non native English speaker who tries to sing in English without speaking the language, and even though the individual syllables may sound correct, the words and phrases don't.
I agree that in the present situation these "flappers" are not needed.