Yes, the world has moved on. As I understand it, the primary market these days for what a decade back we'd call a "feature phone" is elders perhaps entering cognitive decline, or otherwise better served by a device not capable of the default levels of annoyance. (It makes sense! I've had a smartphone since 2012, and have spent every one of those dozen years getting more skillful at frustrating its software suppliers' desire to pester me. I'm quite good at that now, but God help me with whatever's novel twenty or thirty years hence...)
It would not surprise me to see this change over the next decade or so. On the one hand, 5G will probably remain the dominant radio scheme for at least that long, so that there'll be less pressure on device manufacturers for constant hardware changes to provide basic functionality. And on the other, the mounting backlash against the current iteration of the tech industry and specifically the harms it inflicts on children (1) may well develop into a movement toward ensuring connectivity while structurally limiting the sort of access required for algorithmic exploitation - which seems like very naturally opening a niche for the sort of device you prefer. Such a genre of phone may not partake of the sort of design language you might prefer, and it will of course be overpriced as any luxury good, but in functionality I suspect it'll come quite close to satisfaction.
(1) Haidt et al.; I disagree with almost his every prescription and don't at all trust the company he keeps, but I can't argue with his identification of the problem.
It would not surprise me to see this change over the next decade or so. On the one hand, 5G will probably remain the dominant radio scheme for at least that long, so that there'll be less pressure on device manufacturers for constant hardware changes to provide basic functionality. And on the other, the mounting backlash against the current iteration of the tech industry and specifically the harms it inflicts on children (1) may well develop into a movement toward ensuring connectivity while structurally limiting the sort of access required for algorithmic exploitation - which seems like very naturally opening a niche for the sort of device you prefer. Such a genre of phone may not partake of the sort of design language you might prefer, and it will of course be overpriced as any luxury good, but in functionality I suspect it'll come quite close to satisfaction.
(1) Haidt et al.; I disagree with almost his every prescription and don't at all trust the company he keeps, but I can't argue with his identification of the problem.