Yes the elimination of tactile hardware buttons is a perfect example of the end of innovation in smartphone hardware. The manufacturers have taken buttons away from us due to silly "design" principles, or to improve waterproofing. But I'd much prefer to have a few programmable buttons that I could use to change music tracks or answer a call or whatever purely by feel.

Thanks for the reply. I don't know about more awkward to transfer files (maybe depends on the phone), but battery life and lack of hardware buttons definitely make sense.

there are smartphones with 10kmha, not sure what you mean for awkward file transfer, changing tracks depend on your pair of earphones and the app you use, a lot of apps allow controls through eg bluetooth earphones or simply the mic button on wired ones.