I have never had a connected smartphone and I do not think I am missing much in my life. I carry an old smartphone without a SIM. I can take pictures and browse the web with wifi. I would like to find some sort of "life recording" software. When I find a good Linux tablet I will use that.
Apple could easily do this with the iPhone and have it switch to macOS when docked, but obliviously won’t because they want to sell you two devices.
But like you say, Apple has no incentive to do this as it wants to sell iPads and Macbooks. Hopefully in the future this happens.
But I disagree with the single device for everything mantra. A phone and a computer have vastly different usage contexts. And until we invent some sort of magic 100% efficient electronics, if that's even possible, heat management of both will need to be different. On a similar vein, until we invent some sort of magic battery with orders of magnitude more energy storage density, energy management and consumption for both phone and computer will need to be different.
Until we make those physics-defying break thoughts, merging both use cases into a single device will either mean a constantly overheating, minutes-long autonomy phone, or an underperforming, underwhelming computer.
I should switch to just a phone because the lack of multitasking (not in the cpu sense but the ordinary sense), the small screen, and the onscreen keyboard with no easy way to edit would make me use a computer about 95% less.
You can have my dual 27 inch 4k monitors, and my real keyboard with tons of customized shortcuts, my virtual desktops, and my EMACS 29 with lots of modes when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
