Looks like lot of things changed since last time you actually used an apple device. Apple has swipe down to search for a while now which doesn’t require reaching up. Safari has option to put url bar to top but default is bottom for more than a year now which is reachable. I personally never understood need for third party keyboard apps but that’s personal choice. 3rd party app store is valid suggestion but that seems to be coming in future update. but might be restricted only to EU. You could probably access it by setting iPhone region to some country in EU but that’s speculation.
I see lot of discussion justifying 8gb vs higher. I think we can go round and round around this topic all day. But thing is ram is cheap just fucking put more ram in apple. Freaking base steam deck is selling for 350dollars? Has 16gb ram and apple device will cost at least 1000 dollars just put in more ram. They can always make more money by selling higher storage options.