It slightly does me, given that the Air was (apparently) a huge commercial flop. You'd think they'd revisit the soundly mocked design instead of recycling it, or at least change it? The renders may very well be overstating it, of course, but still it's an odd feature to carry over.

But it's not stupid thin, it's got a giant lump on it?

The marketing about it being an incredibly thin phone was a misstep - it just looked absurd to have such a chunky lump stuck onto it, and it felt very much like they were attempting a have cake / eat cake situation by claiming it had incredible camera stats (which werent very good) to justify the bump on an otherwise amazingly thin phone, and then that giant electronics bump had an external lens on it too.

Had it just been an ugly phone, I doubt it would have met with anywhere near the same criticism, but all the adcopy about how thin it was overtop of photos where you could see it had a giant lump on it felt really dishonest, and if this article is accurate it may count among the biggest apple flops ever.

(The thickness may just need to be accepted at this point. The S25 Ultra is 8.2mm, which is thinner than the Air if you include the bump. It seems like the camera wasnt the issue then, but that they hamstrung their design team with their drive for a thin phone. What elegance might even an extra millimeter of chassis space produced?)

No thicker than very popular and successful phones from just 5 years ago. They can use the extra space for a larger battery, so they dont have to nerf performance to maintain stability in older phones. They can also use the space to restore repairability.

But probably not for a folding phone, since making both sides that thick will probably be too much.

making an extremely thick phone

lol how is 11mm extremely thick

Lol "extremely thick phone". Get that apple boot, you got it to your gills this time. Only when it's razor thin and cuts the hands of the unworthy will then your lust be satisfied.