The value to having something like this is pretty clear but I can't reconcile it with the fact that I don't want to be using my phone at all when socializing with friends and I prefer they didn't as well.

In my opinion there is no better interface for communication than human-to-human speech. This is why butlers, waiters, and personal assistants exist, and also why natural-language AI is promising.

In my opinion we should aim to get screens out of our lives except when necessary and intentionally focused on a task (i.e. work) and maintain presence in the real world whenever we're doing anything else. This means leaning more on human language and less on screens.