Indeed, the way I use my phone hasn’t really changed in over a decade. I use the same few apps like email, calendar, music player, browser, and some messenger apps vast majority of the time. From user perspective, I can’t tell any real difference in terms of usability or snappiness in the UI. We absolutely could’ve been making phones that last and then just continuously optimizing the software to keep getting more out of them. Unfortunately, the pressures of capitalism create an incredibly wasteful industry where companies try to get people to buy new phones as often as possible.