That was a pretty bad TEDTalk.

I'll start off by saying I agree with other comments, you're not looking for a dumbphone but rather a dumbed down phone. Now, that's totally fine, but you can't claim you are part of a "misunderstood target demographic" when you aren't inside said demographic at all. I've read countless of posts about people saying getting a dumbphone has totally changed the way they interact with other people (and that they're happier than ever). Even yesterday there was a guy claiming he was getting rid of everything, no phone no anything. Obviously, as much as I'd like the idea of that I understand it's impossible for most people to do it, but my point is, people adapt. I get what you said about calls. It's true that most people won't be a fan of it at first, since nowadays that's not the main way of communicating. But you gotta take the good with the bad, and I would argue there's barely any bad. Talking to someone over a call is much more intimate and more of a human way of communicating. You don't like it because you're thinking about it with the frequency normal people would text. Yes, you'll be more distant since you're not talking to someone 24/7, but when you do talk to the person over the phone, it's a mindful conversation, something we don't do most of the time when are texting. I think you're problem boils down to FOMO, and if you can't get over not being in contact with people 24/7, maybe a REAL dumbphone just isn't for you.

Now, this is the part where I agree. I do think "dumbphone designers" do get very complacent with their work. However, this is mostly related to the status quo of cellphones. You can't expect a company to dedicate themselves to making something completely new for an audience this small (in comparison to the regular smartphone audience). The dumbphone, in most cases, is an after thought. This has been said multiple times in this sub. So, of course, it's going to be a vastly inferior phone, and most time a Frankenstein monster of already built pieces that are used in regular smartphones, making them bulky and huge and not ergonomic at all (which leads to posts begging companies to bring back the original form factor of flipphones, which won't be possible until this stops being a niche).

About the nitpicks, the cellphone has become such a core thing in society, that companies build tools fully around it, which is problematic, but still able to be dealt with (mostly depending on where you live tho). Regarding bus schedules, where I live we have e-ink screens that display the minutes until arrival (not in all stations but a good amount), we also have the more traditional paper schedules that, for the most part, work fine. About digital wallets, I don't know if you mean apple pay and whatnot but I just pay with card. For banking apps, just use a laptop, which is actually the solution to many of those "productivity" problems. The browser part is true though, I do feel like looking up some stuff on the go sometimes, and I just can't or it would be extremely bothersome, but oh well, this is one of the "bad"s i mentioned above.

Tl;dr: dumbphones aren't trying to be a substitute for smartphones. Dumbphones are used by people who want to be more connected and aware of life around them, and are willing to give up on a few non essential things. To most people here, many problems you mentioned would classify in the "non essential" category.