Why was six afraid of seven?

Because seven ate nine.

Sorry, I had to.

Well, languages aren't "created" and then released to the masses.  English (and any other language aside from Esparanto/Klingon) evolves organically.

I can assure you that native speakers NEVER confuse "eight" and "ate" in conversation.  In fact, I can't think of any homophonic pair of words (blew & blue, gate & gait etc) which is the source of confusion or misunderstanding! 

Even words with the same spelling but different definitions like

fine = well, good,

fine = an infringement or penatly fee for doing something wrong

fine = well-ground, as in fine sugar

fine = high-class/quality like, fine wine, fine art, fine dining

The context is always clear of meaning! So...you may deem it as a lack of "creativity" but it sounds quite efficient to me!

Many languages share this facet, and some to far greater degree (like Chinese...)

Context!

You can pronounce ate /et/ if that makes you happy ;-)

Here are some interesting ones :- http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/multinyms.html

"et" is an informal way to say (and also spell) "ate".