You’re right that N95s offer more protection than cloth masks, but, unfortunately, there’s still a shortage of PPE because of supply chain problems, so we need to reserve N95s for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who have the highest exposure to the virus. (Here’s an article about the problem just published this morning: https://hbr.org/2020/09/why-the-u-s-still-has-a-severe-shortage-of-medical-supplies)

If we had an infinite number of N95s, I would recommend them, but our PPE supplies just are not where they need to be. The good news is two-ply cloth masks and surgical masks are able to block about 85% of the virus. So while they’re not perfect, they’re a lot better than nothing.