Another one of the 3 other people here who like small phones.

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.

I disagree that foldables are the best compromise, because they are thicker folded than a regular smartphone, which is inconvenient for pocketing, and what’s worse they are heavier, while the screen is also not smaller than a regular phone unfolded.

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.

Yes, I will slowly have to adapt and move to larger and larger phones once my 13 mini dies (hope this will still take a looong time).

This wont stop me from complaining how ridiculous these phones have become, even foldables are just a crude hack from my POV.