None of the major phone makers will go back to making 2009 era sized phones just to cater to you and the 3 other people who like them, because the market has spoken with their wallets unilaterally in favor of large phones, hence why most manufacturers have dropped small phones altogether, whether you like it or not.
Since nothing is ever perfect at satisfying everyone, choices in life are always about compromise, and foldables are currently the best compromise for those who value small sizes without sacrificing usability of larger screens.
This exact same economic model of an oligopoly only offering larger and more expensive models has been done before. I'm pretty sure the big 3 automakers were also saying that 'the market has spoken', right up until the Japanese ate their lunch.
Where? The phone makers have been also shipping smaller phones until they had to scale back production and cut them out completely because nobody was buying them. You and two other people buying them is not a market share worth catering for and keeping production lines busy for.
You have to accept you're a minority here and not a profitable one.
Cheap phones are also large now BTW, so nothing to do with pushing expletive models. Even 100 Euro phones are still over 6 inches. Because that's what the majority wants, large phones, and voted with their wallets.
For example, the Samsung Flip5, one of the smallest foldables, is 15.1 mm thick folded and weighs 187 g, while the regular iPhone 15 is only 7.8 mm thick and weighs only 171 g, while also being marginally narrower (0.3 mm). For those who find the regular iPhone to large, too wide, and too heavy, the Flip5 is not an improvement.
Just for comparison, the iPhone SE 2016 was a full 13 mm (or 18%) narrower, less than half as thick as the Flip5 folded, while only being 45% taller (or 25% shorter than the Flip5 unfolded), and weighed only 113 g.
Small phones are also about “thumbability”, that is, the ability to be used one-handed with the thumb being able to comfortably reach across the screen. The foldables are of zero help there.
Foldables have the external screen for "thumbability". And the large internal display for contant consumption and multitasking. Therefore best compromise.
This wont stop me from complaining how ridiculous these phones have become, even foldables are just a crude hack from my POV.
