Many operators around the word are ditching 3g but still keeping 2g.
It is main/backup connection in so many iot and older automation devices that it won't be going away anytime soon.
And yes, both my 2110 and 3310 I alternate in my cars glove compartment can still call emergency services number without sim card.
Even when they shut down 2G access it will probably just be commercial use but they'll keep it for emergency service. It still has excellent coverage and the infrastructure is more trouble to remove than it's worth.
You can deploy your own 2g base station with openbts and some cheap software-defined radio hardware. Don't crank up the signal though so you won't run afoul with the government agencies that regulate radio spectrum in your country.
Some of these I get, but I don't get the T9 thing. T9 was so bad! It took ages to type many words. Today's predictive keyboards are miles better.
Also, no software updates? Sure, every now and then there's a shitty update, but most updates are great. New features and especially bug fixes are amazing. Used to be that if something had a bug, you just had to deal with it. There's no guarantees it'll be fixed today, but many companies do fix their bugs at least eventually. The ability to iteratively develop is huge for software quality. These days, unless you're developing something that absolutely cannot fail (like a mars prober or radiation therapy machine), it's widely agreed upon that iterative design is superior to "waterfall" design of trying to plan it out all ahead of time. Part of why is so you can get feedback continuously instead of only after you've committed to months of tech debt.