> Medium format was expensive, unwieldy and slow
?! There are plenty of very pocketable, no fiddling required cameras that take 120/220 film from the 50s onwards. I have a few that I still regularly take on hikes and trips around town (although for shorter trips I can deal with the slightly bigger footprint of a TLR), and let me take pictures with a detail and tonal range most digital cameras can only dream of (particularly smartphones), all about the same size and weight as my Anker battery pack.
Yes there are also crazy bulky Mamiyas/Hasselblads etc but those were always targeted to studio use.