2 Quick Updates:
RE: Phantom zone - I have decided to do a nuke and pave with my phone and try a pristine iOS26 install. If it solves all the problems (apart from the unsolvable Little Mermaid liquid ass interface, which I guess I have to just tolerate for 10yrs until the pendulum swings back toward simple/clean/flat/minimalist) then I guess I will surrender and keep it - trying to fight the inevitable sounds exhausting. If it remains buggy, I will go to the extreme of rolling back to iOS18.
Ironically, none of the new features I upgraded for (call screening, car play and maps improvements) have proved to be particularly useful (call screening has actually been a disaster… several confused/frustrated callers including my kid’s school). As I said, I instantly LOVED the design change toward flat/minimalist and away from shiny/skeuomorphic in iOS7 (and the hardware redesign back to the 90-degree sides iPhone 4 style.) Apart from the challenging battery life, I would have loved to stay with the design combo of iOS18 and the iPhone13 Mini for a very, very long time (sorely tempted to make the rash decision to go back to that, battery be damned.) In any case, it now simply boils down to not wanting to be left without core capability going forward - the interoperability of my phone, mac, watch, and airpods (and appleTV) is truly wonderful. Sadly, ditching the phone, which is the part I value the least, would really hobble that multi-device mix. To me, my phone is a necessary evil to exist in the modern world (doing 2 factor authentication without it would be suicide), but Apple clearly views it as the most important piece, so I must pay the price to really use the other devices for what they’re worth.
I say all of this just to express that I’m torn and wonder if others may feel the same. If so, perhaps this is solace of some kind. If not, thanks for letting (or ignoring) me vent. I’ll do another quick update after I try the nuke and pave.
RE: MacOS upgrade
I’m still VERY wary of doing this upgrade. Unlike my phone, I love everything about my Macbook. It is, by far, the most important piece of technology in my life. I don’t want to kneecap it in any way. That said, I got a chance to work on another Mac with Tahoe on it and it was fine. The interface changes are much less annoying and everything I did seemed to work without a hiccup. I’m not ready to pull the trigger on my own production machine yet, but I’m a lot less terrified.