So go back to asking for directions on every corner or backtracking during the road trip, is that what you're saying? :)

Throwing away progress is not the answer to fighting the corporate greed and device lockdowns.

Add GPS to the second catalog and it's done. The key is not about corporate greed actually, as I'm sure my information is already in dozens of vendors DBs. It's about less distraction.

So the smart phone is going to be as shitty as those corp apps allow.

Did you know that you can swap SIM cards between devices? Or that there are dumbphones on the market that can still serve has 5G hotspots for companion devices?

You are regarded!

Most "dumb phones" are really low end smartphones running kaios (formerly Firefox OS). And yes they usually have wifi hotspot and usb tethering.

And maps. I am using one as a wifi hotspot right now.

Just get two smartphones. One running GrapheneOS and no Google apps for your personal stuff, and another stock Android phone strictly for things that demand a normie phone. The personal phone can be wifi-only, even a tablet.

Some people have resorted to using special cellular WiFi hotspots to run their non-cellular device. You can run your calls through something like that. The CalyxOS foundation makes a WiFi hotspot like that, but I don't have one. That may be the ideal one. Maybe something can be done with Starlink but it's not as portable.