The other side of the coin is with everybody trying to cram AI features into an existing touch UI, touch targets are shrinking and buttons and hard to differentiate gestures are getting overloaded. It used to be that I could tell people that touch UI was great because a toddler could readily master it. Try telling a toddler about edge gestures. Those days are gone now.
iOS 26 went overboard in this direction, especially on iPad. They took what used to be a great touch screen experience and made it only usable with mouse and keyboard. The traffic light buttons are horrible touch targets, as is the menu on top of the screen.
Even on iPhone the long press menus have been crammed so full and their font size reduced that they are much worse touch targets.
This OS that used to work great on a 3.5" screen is now difficult to use on a big 6.5" screen. We've gone totally backwards.
Yes, they obviously do; these very paradigms become important the moment one connects relevant HIDs to a capable-enough smartphone. That also includes high-precision operation in an untethered state, e. g. by way of a suitable stylus. Etc.