Can you use them completely independently from an Apple phone? I thought not...

Context: I'm not particularly interested in switching to Apple's phone ecosystem, but their watches seem to be superior to Android's and I am slightly interested in getting one of them.

I don't have one, but I was under the impression cellular versions of Apple Watches can be used independently from an iPhone. You can take calls, send messages, stream music, etc. miles away from a phone, as its connectivity isn't through the phone its through its own onboard cellular modem. Now, do you have to have some kind of iPhone somewhere for it to do things like route messages through iMessage? I don't know.

You can but it’s not the most ideal experience. Calling, maps, and health stuff works fine; texting is alright; other apps are going to be hit or miss, mostly miss. You also need to get the more expensive LTE version, and to have a provider that will sell you an esim for just the watch without an attached plan for a phone.

With the newer iterations, you can. I bought a series 5 used off ebay and plan to try using it independently. It's obviously not going to give you the full functionality of a full-sized phone, but if we're talking minimalist phones I don't think that's the point anyway. Maps + (very) basic texting + phone calls.