Someone already pointed out how the WSPR anecdotes fail for CB. The longwave reception argument is fallacy as well. There, you receive powerful signals with a poor, receive-only antenna; the typical asymmetric model of commercial broadcast radio (and cellular, for that matter.) With CB, both sides are low power. Legally, that is. And neither antenna is on a huge tower.

Several handheld CB radios exist, with little loaded whip antennas. You can go buy one. You'll see. They work for talking between two tractors in a field or whatnot. Past that, not so much. Today, you're better off with license free UHF handhelds for that use case.