I honestly don't understand what direct benefit that I, a consumer, get from 5G (mmwave or normal spectrum)? My 4G device already can stream 1080p video at high quality. For every use case that I have with my phone, 5G doesn't appear to offer any material improvement.

Sure, the carriers can make more out of their bandwidth, but that's not really something I'm willing to pay for.

And, it's not like 4G is going anywhere, it'll be continued to be supported for a long time.

Actually, considering the impact on battery life that 5G has on consumer devices... I don't think I actually want it, to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I won't resist a natural upgrade when I upgrade my iphone 8 in 2-3 years, but I'm not seeking it out either.

Yeah, as far as I can tell the carriers want me to want it because it’s better for them. But they have so far failed to convince me that it does anything better than LTE for me. All the sales pitches are about either lower cost to network operation, more invasive IoT, or batshit insane stuff like hosting self-driving car AI in containers that execute in servers at the cell tower and control the car wirelessly. So I’m not inclined to pay anything extra for it.

I had this discussion with another friend yesterday, and for 99% I agree with you. He told me about one thing that stuck with me and why I do see some value in 5G networks.

He told me that 5G is able to handle more traffic (= more connections) per tower. So on some busy places like festivals or other places where there is a huge crowd 5G could help to let all those people access their internet. Of course you could make an argument of "why would all those people need access to the internet" but that isn't the point.

Other than the point above I don't see a value in consumer 5G either.

I do not have a source, so if this is wrong then my/his points becomes complete moot.

The million dollar question is how long it will be before huge crowds are safe again.

The expression should be upgraded to “trillion dollar question”!

For the US alone.

I’ve yet to hear one reason for why anyone needs 5G, let alone a reason for why you’d even want it.

I’ve found it quite perplexing (bordering on annoying) that phone companies are getting away with so much BS marketing around 5G. I guess they’re just that desperate for something new to sell. 5G is useless to the average consumer, in my estimation.

I am no expert in the topic but I believe the issue with 4G versus 5G for the carriers is one of capacity more than any other marketing argument.

Using the example one of the replies mentioned, you are able to stream 1080p video over the network but that's because the majority of the network users are not using 4G.

Once everyone (or the majority of users) has a 'heavy-usage' profile then, over a 4G network you would likely need to throotle during peak usage periods.