I don't truly own my phone number. I barely control it. I can move it from provider to provider, kind of, but it's still not _my_ number – the number is a side effect of having cell service. In particular, if I move to a new country, what happens to my phone number? (Having recently done so, I still don't know: for now, I'm paying two cellphone bills, but that's obviously not a long-term solution, and I don't know what is. Port it to Twilio, I guess.)

You can make the argument that I don't truly “owns” the domain name off of which my e-mail address hangs, either, but it's a much better situation than phone number ownership. There, at least, the constraints of ownership (rental) are clearly defined, as is my ability to move it between registrars.

My phone number is tied to a geographical location. (Sure, I can keep it alive, but now I am collecting phone numbers as I move around).

My email represents me, and I fully own it with minimal upkeep costs.

I'm not sure I understand you. You ask me why I see a difference and then list reasons a phone number sucks?

Phone numbers are an awful identifier.

All I want is messenger. Status seems to do way too much. I don't want a wallet, a browser or anything else (not even to mention that I don't know a single person on macos and barely anyone on iOS)