Half of the phones to come out over the last 5 years felt like they were engaged in a useless gimmickry arms race and it's a really clever move to be the first to pull the plug on that trend IMO. I for one was not expecting it.
Of course, I'm not going to buy because I have both the 3XL (this phone, best phone ever IMO, indestructible and does the things I need well) and the 4XL which I don't use as face unlock was annoying to begin with and now, simply put, useless.
In a year where company execs can, for instance, present a watch and with a straight face say "up to 18 hours battery life" I like to think that these guys brought some sanity to the table.
They figured out what people care about, refined those elements and dumped the rest of the useless crap. Who actually uses AR apart from a few pokemon players and some other niche uses, who cares about a 5% better camera when all cameras are amazing, and who wants to pay >1000, when phones have reached a reasonable performance level in any category. Which phones of the last three years are too slow?
It feels like the grown-up version of the smart phone. One size offering which falls in the sweet spot, amazing camera, fast refresh display, the only biometric that people actually like, and it's waterproof.
Face recognition is dead in the water, unless the law becomes having QR codes on face masks. That's why my pixel 4XL is still new and unused.
Additionally, a lot of people have less disposable income in light of recent events.
My pixel 3XL is still great so I'll hold off for now, but I'm super happy to see this type of "evolution". Just my ten cents.