2008 - Nokia e63.
It had the near perfect balance of utility, usability, and durability.
Granted it didn't do everything as well as later devices, at a cost of about $200 AUD it was an awesome bit of kit.
Full qwerty keyboard, multi day battery, wifi, Bluetooth, gps, could be used as a weapon or beer opener if required.
No doomscrolling, no single user/purpose apps, just a fucking solid communication device.
Cameras (and camera software) get better. Other than that, I totally agree. And if you're not much into photography, that may not matter. I probably only use 10-15% of the features anyway.
I don't remember the model, but it was around 2010 or so. Pretty much all of the changes since then have been irrelevant to me, and a few have made the phones less fit for my purposes.
I've never been too excited about smartphones. They took FM radio from me and recently they've even tried to take the a-jack from me, so in a way we're regressing. Honestly I'm good with just the hotspot and a GPS. I don't need much from a phone.
However, at the same time I don't think I still have what I want from my phone. Mainly because the operating systems for phones are trash. I'm waiting for the day when it becomes the norm that people don't even have work laptops anymore. Just a phone with a good desktop OS that they can plug to some dumb-end at their work or home office. I'm sure it's already possible to some extend. Just not practical.