I actively dislike the trend of returning back to “Dumbphones” because it doesn’t actually actively address the issues around Smartphones in general and causes people to be lazy and less aware in general about technology. It is not ideal to be lazy and unaware about technology in this day of age.
These devices may make perfect sense for the aging population who only makes phone calls and sends occasional texts; or for the vulnerable teenager population who absolutelycannot be trusted to self-regulate themselves because that ability is not yet fully developed when using a standard Smartphone; but they do not make sense for your average everyday Adult.
If you have troubles with notifications; I beg and implore you; Learn about how to train your device! Learn which applications are sending notifications, how to block apps that send unimportant notifications, and most importantly how to manually silence your device when you are not in a time or place you are willing to receive notifications and how to un-silence your device so you receive important ones as well!
Modern Smartphones do in fact offer many controls and widgets. Learn how to use them and to customize your phone to offer up only the information you need at a glance; and how to hide information that you don’t need.
If this is still a challenge; a modern smartwatch paired with your phone helps a lot to minimize unnecessary information flow while still allowing you to customize and receive critical notification and bits of information.