I know this is true, but for serious tasks, I need the screen real estate. I'm amazed at what some people can do from a phone, but also wonder if they're missing things, of if it's actually inefficient.
Not all.
Just like with a lot of things. Sure you could do a thing better, faster, more efficiently on a PC, but some people just don't care when 80% is good enough.
You can choose to not allow location tracking on those apps if that's your concern.
That's true, but can we really trust those settings? As for my laptop, like my desktop, it stays home where if/when it's tracked, it shows I'm not on the move. The above apps you mentioned are not on my cell so I don't use it for those apps, ever. I realize by using those apps, only at home, I am giving up some of my privacy, I just don't give it up with my cell.
You can also use a VPN to mask the IP address of your devices, both phone and laptop, though it's a bit redundant at home if you have to give your home address anyway.
BTW newer mobile phones offer "desktop mode" (the Samsung Dex, and what came to AOSP), so you can attach them to a TV.
I log in to transfer money, to take a photo of a check to deposit it, to check my balance.
All of that is fine on a phone screen. Actually, it's a lot easier to take the check photo.
And a banking app is a whole lot more secure than a browser tab running extensions that might get hijacked, on a desktop OS whose architecture allows this like widespread disk access, keyloggers, etc.