I do not get the appeal either. You have to put something in your pocket and take it out occasionally.
> And then phone as a key is incredibly nice, definitely my preferred way.
Your phone becomes a point of failure for one more thing.
> Incredibly freeing compared to having to carry a bunch of junk in my pockets just to get groceries or whatever.
All I put in my pocket to buy groceries are keys and a wallet.
> . If you lose your car keys on your trip, your trip is still a failure
I have my phone so i can phone for help. I have my wallet so I can pay for things.
> If I lose my phone it's the same bad day as if you lose yours, a potentially expensive device went missing
Nope, because its like everything that could happen to me happening at once.
You have a lot less backup.
> Nope, because its like everything that could happen to me happening at once
No, because I can still drive home even if I lose my phone.
If you lose your wallet, you're not buying the groceries. If you lose your keys, those groceries aren't getting home anytime soon.
And even then, this is still a massively rare occurrence. How often do you smash your phone on the ground, daily? Weekly? Monthly? I'll gladly trade a slightly less convenient day once a decade+ for having to deal with all this business of having to carry extra junk every day of my life.
> Your phone becomes a point of failure for one more thing.
So one critical point of failure instead of multiple critical points of failure. If you lose your car keys on your trip, your trip is still a failure and you're stranded. If you lose your wallet on your trip it's still a failure, and now you have to go cancel a handful of cards and you're out the cash in the wallet and what not and need to get a new ID. If you lose your phone it's still a bad day, a potentially expensive and useful device went missing.
If I lose my phone it's the same bad day as if you lose yours, a potentially expensive device went missing. I can use my backup passphrase on the car to get home. I still have my regular wallet at home to fall back on, and all my payment info was encrypted and can be remotely wiped with a few clicks. I didn't lose any government documents.
And in the end, it's not like I'm breaking my phone every day or something. Phones are pretty resilient these days especially when thinking about short trips around town. I've had one phone break from physical damage in the past decade. Seems like an overblown concern to me. As for "what if your phone dies?", the car is a 74kWh battery. If my phone dies while I'm next to 74kWh of electricity I'm an idiot and failed to have extremely basic plans.
> All I put in my pocket to buy groceries are keys and a wallet.
So 3x more junk than me for otherwise no reason.