It really needs to at least respect the master volume slider. You can have the whole game muted and it will still scream at full volume. Using the windows volume mixer is the only way I've found to be able to use it, and even then I can't hear any other game audio, because otherwise it makes my whole head hurt.
Doesn't seem like I can lock/seal flower pots in adventure mode in 1.21; although with the lack of consistent documentation I can't be sure that I just don't know how. I did figure out how to lock/seal item frames and paintings, but those are entities, and the flower pot is a block.