I agree. Apple is perhaps largely to blame for this. I am a happy iPhone customer, but I cannot deny that I don't really appreciate some of their hardware design choices. Very slippery, so the very first thing I do is put it in a case. So it doesn't matter if it's elegant and beautiful, it's in a TPU case so I don't drop it. Last time I had an iPhone that I didn't use a case for was the 4S. I still think that may have been peak iPhone in some ways.
I have a 13 Pro Max coming Monday, and guess what, sitting on my desk in front of me is the case it will go into immediately after I take it out of the package. Kinda sad. Someone said they're not as slippery as the older phones, but have sharp edges. Okay on something the size of a 4S, not so okay on something the size of a small tablet.