Yup. We see it all the time in tech: build it because we can, and sell it to make money. Never mind need or usefulness or efficiency. Just the-latest-is-the-greatest, even if it’s useless.
We have people burning cell towers in Quebec because they think they’re 5G and dangerous. No joke. Meanwhile out here in the bus we have NO cell service because who needs it? Well anyone who gets stranded out here far away from cities on roads that have low traffic volume. You know; exactly the situation where a cell phone would be useful, as opposed to in cities where landlines make more sense.
As an engineer one common thread I’ve seen throughout the years and across many types of tech is that multi-purpose means “doesn’t do anything very well”.

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As for the password I believe you’re right. I’ve already sworn off TouchID, and FaceID may be next. As for so-called “smart” phones, they really don’t need to be smart. They just need to be repeatably reliable, which means as few functions as possible to minimize failure modes and attack surfaces in the software. Here’s a short list of what my hand holdable computer should have:
Need-to-haves
* A big fat battery for 48 hour normal usage
* A fucking 3.5mm headphone jack
* A universal charging port, USB 3
* WiFi
* Voice with ability to record conversations and a whitelist feature to block robocalling
* Phone book to support whitelist robocall blocking
* Text (SMS) messaging
* Email
* Clock (for setting up alarms)
* Simple text pad (raw text only) that supports more than one text document

Nice-to-haves-but-won’t-be-missed
* Web browser that is standards compliant with ability to disable JavaScript
* Video streaming app (Netflix in particular)
* Camera app that supports phone camera
* Bluetooth

That’s it. No AI. No games. No social media support at all. No Google (YouTube especially). Everything should be encrypted. All electronic messaging on and off the device should be encrypted. Sounds dull; dull is great. It doesn’t have to have the fastest SoC. It doesn’t need 5G because 5G is a power hog as well as easily attenuated by damn near everything in its path.

5G doesn’t spread coronavirus or cause cancer, but it does suck money out of your wallet a lot faster than everything that’s come before it. It costs more up front for the handset and the carriers will charge a monthly premium for the privilege of using it on their network, if it’s installed. Here in the US it’s not installed anywhere of significance.

All software on that phone should have no need whatsoever to call back to the mothership unless you need to make a phone call, check the local time, or download mail. For web and video, only reach out to retrieve web and video data.

It will never be built because there’s no way to monetize such a device by the people who want to sell it to you unless you pay for the true cost of such a device up front.

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