You're also a self-admitted tall user with long fingers, and the device is pretty much at the size limit of what you would find usable. That means that for the average person, it's definitely too big, and surpassed the size of what they find usable. Also, being able to reposition the phone to do day-to-day activities being easy for you after a year isn't an upside to me, that's a downside. That's you saying, "After a year of use, I've found a usability flow that addresses the problems I initially had with the phone". You shouldn't have had to spend the year getting to a point where you can do it "pretty smoothly now with a year of daily practice". Not saying there aren't people out there who would prefer it, but the fact that it's across-the-board required to learn this (and the fact that Apple recognized it, and added the double-tap to "lower" the screen as a bandaid) make me think the darn thing is just too big.

might as well learn to play the violin