You're not wrong, but I have to wonder how much phone RAM is just the new megapixels, i.e. bigger number = more impressive spec sheet.

iOS is obviously a lot stricter on background activity than Android but manages to work great on 3-6GB.

I can comfortably do development work on my laptop with 16GB, and until last year was managing mostly okay on a 5 year-old machine with 8GB.

When you factor in the sort of stuff people actually do on a phone, surely 12-16GB is a massive waste? You can make the argument that it will become more useful as the phone ages, but by that point it will have probably stopped receiving software updates.

The value is in having multiple apps stored in memory. I think the average person multitasks more on their phone compared to a PC.

Things like having a lot of tabs open. Messaging applications, music streaming etc.

It's not required. But instant switching between apps is a nice user experience.

In the same way a 120Hz monitor is a nicer experience but 60Hz is perfectly reasonable.

I don't think it's fair to compare iOS to Android. Android is quite a bit heaver.

I remember reading a quote from someone at Nvidia saying that hardware is much easier to change than software.

And at the end of the day, as consumers we should demand more for our money. Phone's aren't getting cheaper.