As a ‘front page of the internet’ it has been a pretty great replacement for me as it’s where I go each day to just see what’s going on. However, due to the smaller size you do lose a lot of the activity in more niche communities and the sheer volume of posts/comments compared to Reddit. That’s the biggest downside. Still, you also lose the incessant ads/bad UI/UX decisions and ever accelerating late stage capitalism driven enshittification so that’s a big plus.

I think the point about the 3 year upgrade cycle being optimal unless you are a real enthusiast is right on the money. I’d say I’m moderately interested in tech improvements in this space and it seems ideal for me as I will be considering an upgrade from an iPhone 13 Pro (likely informed by how gimmicky or actually useful the Apple Intelligence stuff becomes and if I can offload my ChatGPT Pro subscription). If you’re really not a huge phone tech person or looking for the best camera quality then every 4 years is probably completely reasonable as well. At that point, the battery life is probably starting to suffer as well…