There's the magsafe wireless charging now though right so you could slap that on and hold the phone maybe? I don't have an iPhone so I'm not aware how thick those pucks are off the top of my head but seems doable.
Those other two use cases of music creation and thumb drives are a tiny market on iPhone I could see Apple abandoning them entirely.
You're right, that is an important caveat! I've not run into an issue, since I mostly charge at night, and rarely is my battery in perilous territory (even though it's the diminutive 13 Mini). On the few occasions where I was using the phone and needed to charge it, I just switched to using my computer, which I usually have with me.
And if I were charging at a Starbucks or something, I could use the phone while charging, just flat on the table.
I know, ”akshually, you can use it, you just can’t hold it in your hand!”. Anyway, you can’t use it normally - it must be kept on the mat to charge.
Also, there are a bunch of accessories that require physical connection. Search for “iphone pendrive” for instance.
Bluetooth headphones still have laughable latency for music production, and decent quality full-duplex audio isn’t there either.
iOS developers will also tell you how reliable wireless debugging is. (Hint: it’s abysmal)