> Why is bezelless a “feature” or improvement?

I mean, it makes the phone smaller for the same screen size. That's an improvement for me.

Not enough for me to drop $$$ on an iPhone-mini, but I'd be happy if Apple put future SEs into an "iPhone 13 mini" body (presumably with a single lens camera).

Because it's optimising the usable surface of the phone of course. The bezels don't serve any purpose other than they were technically necessary during the first years of smartphones.

On a tablet you can use them to hold the device but a smartphone is small enough to grip by the edges only.

And OLED really is a total must-have for me these days.