Just to preface this I'm very new to cryptography. However, I've been reading that ECB should not be used under most circumstances due to its symmetry which allows attackers to gain information about the plaintext from observations of the ciphertext.
It got me thinking about a way obfuscate patterns in the plaintext before encryption occurs.
Let's say for instance each block of plaintext is XOR'd with a randomly generated "key" of maybe 1 or 2 bytes that is stored with the block and then encrypted along with it, effectively hiding any observable pattern.
In this manner wouldn't the obvious attacks that ECB would normally be prone to be completely dismantled?