Well, there's only so many trade-offs you can make on a cheap phone. A touchscreen is not only a big cost-factor and battery-drainer but also impairs usability

Well, there's only so many trade-offs you can make on a cheap phone. A touchscreen is not only a big cost-factor and battery-drainer but also impairs usability of the core feature (making calls) significantly. You can't read it in bright sunlight, you can't make calls "blind" because there's no keypad/tactile feedback, and even my high-end android has nasty input-lags - whereas all my old dumbphones respond instantly to any keypress. Sure, you could cut out the touchscreen and still run android but that's hardly a smartphone then...