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I spent a significant chunk of my teenage income on phones because of water damage. Getting caught in a rainstorm, having the canoe tip over, have people be too rowdy with splashing around a pool, forgetting it in a pocket when going swimming, it falling off a dock were all times Ive personally lost a device. Every one of those would have been fine with my current phones and they've survived all that and more without issue. Sometimes I'll even just rinse my phone under running water when the kids make it super nasty, it's no problem.

Similar thing with dust. Even though a lot of my phones in my teenage years lasted under a year, they always died with dust in their screens. Camping and riding bikes around dirt trails and what not can push a lot of gunk in those things.

I'm happy phones are a lot better sealed. It's a bit of a pain making it harder to swap the battery, but paying a shop $50 parts included to swap it and keep it sealed well is worth it to me. A replacement battery back then would have been like >$30 anyways, going by inflation that's not too much increase in cost.