Out of curiosity, why don’t you just keep your phone in a locked drawer somewhere, let the battery run down if that doesn’t affect your Watch, and just use the Watch? If the phone must retain power, plug it in somewhere that’s out of the way (closet in a spare room, etc.) and just use your Watch?
You aren’t really saving money by switching to the Light Phone so you aren’t really out money to just have your iPhone at home acting as the “base” for your Watch.
I work at a Public School system and that level of industrial concrete means that cell signal is awful on the watch and due to network level wifi limitations the watch won’t connect to the wifi without the phone.
If it were not so I would probably do as you suggest.
At the same time mission creep tends to be a real thing on iPhone. Oh I need it for this one X thing and over time I go back to full time usage again. Kind of cutting it off at the source.
Ahh, yah if you have to have it with you at work, that’s a tough one.
Hmmm, in the meantime, what about a severely locked down screen time hidden behind a password a friend/loved one creates? I’ve heard of people doing this with success.
Just thinking of things you might be able to do while you wait for your new phone.