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Right, but you can leave a spare phone plugged in and connected to wifi just like a laptop.

The point is that while phones are able to do what you suggest, they're not fit for purpose. A phone shouldn't be used as a long-term server because it turns into a fire hazard as the battery degrades. And you can't just remove the battery because most phones won't even power on without a battery (even when plugged in).

At that point, you're better off going with some N100 mini-PC or such. But that's not a phone.

Yep, at that point we've circled back to the original years-long conversation about home servers, except now instead of a cheap mini-PC it's a phone. The distinction isn't meaningful.

And I'll remind folks that we've been talking about the power of people owning their own servers in their homes for decades, and yet the vast vast vast vast majority of users aren't doing it.

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