I'd be surprised if there were more than a handful of people actually doing this, which would explain why your use case doesn't get substantial engineering/UX resources.
They don't need any engineering/UX, they just need to stop locking down all the settings. Android and every dumbphone I ever owned had no problems with this.
Are the settings locked down or do they just not exist? Apple would have to create and test the interface, make sure it's not possible to disable your device with it, etc. Which is a small thing, but easy to miss when there's no obvious need for it (except, of course, a few edge cases).
Of course my use case is very much and edge case, but if they just let me have access to the damned settings it wouldn't be a problem. It's my one gripe with my iPhone
I'd be surprised if there were more than a handful of people actually doing this, which would explain why your use case doesn't get substantial engineering/UX resources.