It's obvious to anyone that bringing screens is just bringing in distraction. And even in the fields where they may be of some benefit (maths for example) the benefits are so minor as to be pointless.
OTOH I think it's fair to say that something like an e-reader or a dumb watch has low-addictive qualities, and have screens.
My kids can spend hours and hours glued to it.
And god help me I'm so over the moon happy.
Both my kids have old school Casio's, and kindle e-readers. Totally agree with ya.
So yes, "screens" as a pars pro toto for digital learning is inherently distracting. It's only when you reduce it so far as to be meaningless, - "a screen is just some LED-lights organized in a square, how's that different from paper," - that you can say they're not.