When it comes to phones I go through alternating phases of high-tech and as simple as it gets, mostly because I get frustrated at how bad high tech phones usually work as phones (they're great little computers, but I mostly use my phone to call).
SMS is no longer optional, even if you want to get rid of it, typically service messages are only sent using SMS, not voice and people will simply assume that even if you didn't respond that you still read their SMS message saying they'll be an hour late.
It's like with businesses and FAX, you may never send one but people pretty much used to assume that you were at least capable of receiving them.
False! Perhaps for your way of life, but there's the age-old 'you != everyone'. Once your friends know you don't text, they stop texting you. They may think you're a Luddite, but that's another issue.
Even though you (and me for that matter) may want SMS on phones, I don't think it was a poor design choice to skip SMS on this phone.
I really really tried, but apparently your friends respect you better than mine do me :)
I don't mind being known as a Luddite ;)
And they'll be wrong.
And an hour late.
I would argue that politeness requires the sender to contact the receiver in a manner of the receiver's choosing, not the sender's, while the receiver should not go to extremes to avoid the sender.
Lack of SMS is the normal, passive state and since there is no legal or social requirement to have it, I wouldn't consider not having it impolite at all.
Odd, perhaps, if one takes the receiver's demographic into account, but not impolite.
Strikes me to have two major markets: (1) people who only want to talk to people via phones (e.g. some of the elderly) and (2) as a fashionable item. The gold one would be a head-turner and topic of conversation.
Some people want to get rid of SMS from their way of life (or never adopted it in the first place), and hark back for simpler times. This phone appeals to that.