Well, that explains the battery life tanking.
This is not true in my experience. Having the WiFi radio on while network connectivity (including LTE/3G) isn't used hurts the battery runtime. It may be true for Bluetooth Low Energy, but not WiFi. Even when "disconnected" from a network, the WiFi radio now keeps looking for networks soon after the disconnect (I did see a "searching for network" message below the WiFi button in Control Center).
What really makes voice interfaces superior, IMHO, is the degradation of the UI.
By making one worse, the other is relativily better.