I don't see what is the problem in recording by individuals ! Call any company and you will get " This call may be recorded by quality control purposes". (Althouth, unlike in the US, Indian law does not require any such announcement).
Once you tell people that call is being recorded they automatically become careful and this saves a lot of time. Otherwise you will hear one thing on the phone and get something else in contracts/agreements etc and you have to go through 100 pages and then talk 5 times when the other guy will claim he meant something else.
Also, you can refer back to the recording when you yourself are confused. For example boss is saying something while you are driving or in a noisy environment and you keep saying yes sir yes sir without really getting the exact idea then you can listen to it again and realize what he wanted and what you are doing are entirely different things !
If the other party is talking in "Good Faith" & is reasonably honest then there's nothing to worry about if call is being recorded. If not, then its good that it was recorded.
Finally, since other parties are recording, we also need to record otherwise in case of any issue they will produce selective sections saying rest was not recorded.
So then you can produce your own authentic and full recording.
Obviously, its not very good to play pranks like getting your friends to criticize their bosses /wives / GFs etc