I don't just go throwing my devices into water intentionally, but having waterproof phones has been a lifesaver for me. I've fallen into pools with my phone. I've had phones around a pool I thought we're safe but still got soaked from splashes. I've been caught in pretty massive rainstorms without a waterproof pocket or bag. I've had things spill while cooking. I've had kids with sticky fingers get all kinds of greasy nasties all over my phone and been happy I could just rinse it in the sink.

I’m not defending Apple here because I don’t buy the “water resistance requires non-replaceable batteries story” (there have been plenty of phones that were water resistant and had replaceable batteries + TRS sockets)

However it’s worth noting that in the era you described where phones had replaceable batteries, water damage was also a lot less permanent.

Back then, you would whip the battery out, leave the phone in rice for a day, then it would power up the following day as if nothing had happened.

These days I couldn’t see that working even if you could remove the battery. And when you also factor in how much more essential phones are to our every day lives (they’re our wallet, plane boarding pass, health monitors, location tracking for nervous parents, etc. we don’t even remember important phone numbers like we used to). Regardless of whether you agree with all these use cases, it does result in a scenario where water resistance is a lot more important than it used to be.