At this point its just sad that its spec bumps on what imo is a pretty poor iteration of their own product. They had better ideas in the past that I wish they would rehash just for the sake of offering more skus to choose from vs "small and large." I liked 3d touch. I liked touchid. I liked having a headphone jack. I liked a small and lightweight phone. I liked a phone that actually sat flat on a table. It's just a shame that this is clearly never going to be made by them today, and being reminded of this through yet another paltry spec bump with stingy storage offerings that's been all too typical from this company with this product lately.
It sounds like you'd rather sacrifice Function over Form ... in which case - the iPhone SE checks most of your boxes.
Note: I don't disagree with what you're saying. But Apple also creates multiple models for different users desires, and it sounds like you're most closely aligned to the iPhone SE target market (not the iPhone base or Pro).
I currently do actually use an iphone se 2. But honestly its a worse device than the old se 1 in my drawer that I used when the se2 was in the shop not too long ago. The only issue was modern apps were not compatible with whatever ios version it was on. Otherwise, it was surprisingly faster. spotlight search was appreciably faster, without any delay vs the se2 that just hangs for about 2 seconds before returning any results. mobile web felt great although the smaller screen would often be reduced to a postage stamp of readable space after banner and footer and other ads gobble up the rest of it. It felt much better in the hand and in the pocket. Headphone jack of course.
And what is worse about this se line is that I know it is temporary. They won't be building them out of new old stock iphone 8 parts forever. That will run dry like the old iphone 5 supply lines the se1 used did, which forced its obsolescence. Eventually I will be shunted into these newer, heavier, wobbly bottomed iphones, due to forced obsolescence in either the apps I use or the actual carrier network protocols.
