I think I may have just done a bad job of explaining my first point:

I’m saying that manufacturers are putting these features on phones that people weren’t going to buy anyway on purpose, in order to support the narrative that nobody wants those features.

There’s counter examples of course, but for the most part I think what I said is applicable.

no one bought it because it was shit. companies do this all the time so they can make more expensive things more cheaply, and force people into buying the most expensive.

I want an easily removable battery. As in, I want to be able to have two batteries, one in my phone and another in a charger and I just swap them once a day. I used to be able to do that, and it was normal. Now, the only phones that have that are either extremely garbage or also feature a barcode scanner and cost as much as a “flagship” device.