Exectly my thoughts recently! My smartphone is starting to show some problems with its screen and it’s a Xiaomi device which makes it very hard/unpleasant to get root access to reinstall the OS (you have to download a windows app and use it to share your data and reasons for voiding your contract by asking to get root access) so I thought maybe there are non-touchscreen smartphones and when I tried looking for one I only got dumb phone suggestions and I realized that such a phone would have to have a specific version of Android that is not designed around touchscreen technology. I’m not sure what I want, but the options seem to be polar extremes without a middle ground option, something between a smartphone and a dumbphone that will be helpful in detoxifying from doom scrolling and yet still usable for productive activities.
I really hope that in the near future we’ll see some change in the direction towards smartphones that are not made only for watching videos, playing games, but to some combinations of useful ideas from both dumb and smartphones, like having a decent screen to be able to use maps and with also a “mechanical” keyboard or smth. But then again physical keys will have problems like if they would be made from cheap plastic, there always will be downsides…
Yes BB seems to be the closest option but in order to unlock it’s bootloader you also need to authorize on some manufacturer’s site which is (to my understanding) a concern in the “consumer’s right to repair” way - if I can’t upgrade a system after its support ends the phone becomes e-waste, and giving your phone number, name, email address to the Chinese government is at least questionable from privacy standpoint. I could be exaggerating though