I think we are in general agreement especially about Apple and their position. And yes there are use cases where one handed is more convenient -- note I did not say faster or productive, but convenient. I walk to work or take the bus and I like so many others are typing with one hand while holding something in the other hand, like a purse or a coffee or whatever. Here if I had a huge phone/phablet I could not do much other than stare. Siri is also not practical in a crowded bus IMHO, although I will admit to seeing certain people screaming away on the phone. Bottom line, for me and for many people being able to use the device one-handed is a real requirement.
As far as the phone app, I really see no issue with sticking it in any cellular enabled device regardless of size. Again, it cost them almost nothing to do it and they might get a few extra sales out of it. Of course, it is possible that their real strategy is to continue to move people towards facetime and facetime audio that could eventually circumvent cellular companies altogether. But that would require them to open it up to other vendors which was the original promise. My point here is why not let people talk from any device regardless of size. I use facetime to talk to my friends on the other side of the pond with no issue from all of my devices (I am fortunate that 90% of my friends are Apple users). Until Facetime is ubiquitous across all platforms, however, why not give them the phone app on all devices.
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