The phone you always wanted

We recently upgraded from our old iphone6's to iphone11's primarily because the batteries were needing to be replaced. We intentionally did not go with the iphone12 as there is limited or no availability of 5G in our area, operating in 5G with no 5G service depletes the battery faster, and we do nothing on our phones that need 5G any way. Having the "latest and greatest" means nothing to us.

Other than the built in obsolescence factor to churn consumers through a succession of "the next big thing", what was the reason for integrating the battery?

I know I must be a source of frustration to Verizon. Carpet bombed almost daily via email with exhortations to upgrade to 5G phones. Don't watch TV, play games, or livestream video, so no particular benefit to me. Then there's the issue of Verizon has no 5G service in my neighborhood yet. One last thing, a 5G device forces you to select a new plan, none of which are the deal I currently have with Verizon's 55+.

I like the changeable battery. I miss having that on my old phones.
I replaced one in an iphone once. That was a job and a half.
So much better to flip the back off and pull the battery out.