I agree with this on the whole. I’d add the form factor of a phone works against anything complex also.

No D-Pad/Joystick or hardware buttons really makes it difficult to design anything that will hit that fun + complex loop well. I can see play.date/steamdeck rolling in sales, as the portable market has a huge back-catalogue and is underserved.

Ultimately, our utilitarian glass slabs are only really good for lists. Lists within lists.