Maybe they’ll someday do a clamshell iPhone, but for me personally this is what I wanted out of a folding iPhone.
Being able to have my phone become an iPad Mini just seems awesome. I love the tablet form factor. I’ll admit the reason I’m most excited about is pretty niche, but I just adore the idea of being able to have forScore in my pocket in a form factor I can feasibly use for sheet music (it runs on my iPhone but the screen is too small to be useful except as a reference). I know it seems silly or rare, but believe it or not I’ve frequently wished I had my iPad with me for sheet music purposes.
Especially with Apple Pencil support, being able to just bring my phone to rehearsals is tempting.
I don’t know if I’ll jump on the Gen 1, and I commiserate with your disappointment, but I have to admit I’m excited.