While phones have gotten bigger, screen size is not a good indication of that. It’s more useful to compare physical dimensions because of slightly different aspect ratios and border widths/roundness
Here is a comparison between a few phones: https://phonesized.com/compare/#1784,1862,1863,365,632,126 (the Zenfone 9 is not in the database yet, but it's almost identical at the Zenfone 8).
What I find more interesting is that their website focus so much on it being compact, but it's actually just pretty much the same size as the regular iphone.
I like it how in your comparison that these modern "compact" phones are almost the same size as the Note 3 which was a phablet when it came out.
If 5.9" were ridiculously large (it is), then so is anything bigger, including the phone that must contain the 5.9" screen.
A 'smaller' screen can actually be larger in area. Take the 5.7 inch note 3 mentioned earlier.
https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5665&idPhone2=1...
Its screen is nearly 7% larger than the 5.9 inch zenphone 9. Skinnier aspect ratios exaggerate the growth in phone screen sizes.
http://www.displaywars.com/5,9-inch-d%7B20x9%7D-vs-5,7-inch-...