I guess giving you less control over your device is an improvement for them, otherwise their service wouldn't be obliged to destroy self serviced phones
I'm still rocking my S8 active, and I'll keep doing it until the battery dies or catches fire. Nothing they've added to phones in the last 7 years is worth it, imo
Only problem is that the storage is almost full from apps leaking data into locations not accessible from userland, so I'll have to root it at some point. But I'm confident it got another 2-3 years in it