> My phone still didn't come with a functional paint or notepad apps [...] And you're telling me that this is the only computing platform for a lot of people? How is everything still so unusable about it then?

Not to sound harsh, but you come at this with an somewhat old perspective, the same one I grew up with too and probably also retain too much of.

People don't open their phones looking for something like paint or notepad apps, they want a messenger/social network to connect with their family/friends which is most likely why they got the phone in the first place, and if they're "advanced", they'll even edit their own photos and images but via a whole host of various phone image editors. Sometimes the social network offers those things too, sometimes as separate apps, people use that sort of stuff instead of looking for "paint.exe" or tools to crop/edit images in a more, I guess "crude" way that you and I might be used to and favor still today.

All that stuff actually works decently well on mobile... as long as one is willing to accept certain compromises.

Note-taking works fine, in Google Keep, Apple Notes, or some other cloud equivalent. Yup, your data is in the cloud and owned by one of those tech megacorps, but most people just don't care.

Basic photo editing works okay too, in Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc. Ditto the cloud stuff.

What really makes most desktop users outliers is caring about, or even being aware at all of the concept of, actually owning your own data versus trusting cloud providers for everything.

That fact that you're posting on a web forum makes you an outlier. Most people only passively consume, and mobile devices are good enough for that.

My phone still doesn't have a calculator app. The thought of trying to add one that isnt wolfram alpha is anxiety-producing.