I don't think major manufacturers ever will make them. We'll continue to get one-off kickstarter-esque fringe phones that'll keep the most devout Luddite happy and the rest of us will buy what we are offered whether we want a dumb phone or not.
I got the Apple Watch Ultra 2 several months ago and to my surprise I’ve been leaving my phone home about half the time I leave the house. I can still text and answer a call, got my favorite playlists and albums downloaded to it and my Apple Pay setup. Having a dumb phone alone is probably still a step too far back for me but it’s nice having a simpler device that covers all the basics as well as this watch does. I can definitely see the appeal.
As the actual headline itself says, this is a niche. The editorialized lemmy headline makes it sound like much more than that. Dumb phones still exist, but not many people choose to buy them