You are for certain correct, there is a strong need for such a device, the only reason it doesn't exist I'm sure is because there is no way to advertise on it. This is why I funded the Pebble and Pebble Core. I anticipated the Pebble to be the next big utilitarian notification device, and the Core (headless Smartphone) to potentially inspire a new type of minimal, even colorless smartphone that you describe. Unfortunately, they ran out of money. I still use my Pebble and it is a fantastic replacement to all my notifications on my smartphone, without any of the unnecessary HD graphics.

I feel like a device without a screen, but using spoken speech, could be adapted for this type of need. Nearly all these applications seem to me to not need visual overview for fast interaction (like “set up an alarm for tomorrow at eight”, “who directed the film seven ?”, “contact a cheap Airbnb with good reviews that is close by”), but could be accessed from another screen later on for more complex interaction. I think this could maintain usefulness (and I dream that spoken interaction could be expanded a lot and be very efficient) while strongly throttling the always-on information-packed feedback loop.

Also I dream that spoken interaction / programming would force us to be more expressive than through touchscreen / mouse control, just following what someone put on a screen. Though I guess “user-friendly” speech interface could always be developed to keep users engaged without having to think about what they're doing :/

I think you just described the value proposition of Amazon's Echo device.

Google and Apple seem to agree there is a market need for such a device since they also have competing products: Google Home and Apple HomePod.

You can take this today by enabling corporate lockdown modes of your smartphone and trusting someone else with the key.

That's kind of my point. Trusting someone else with the key works for as long as they want to be your app babysitter. The smart utensil plays that role in perpetuity, as being the babysitter is basically the business model.

The types of people that would want this can already do it with their smart phones. What's gained by crippling a device to only support certain classes of apps?

It's like comparing Advil to Heroin. Heroin is better at numbing pain, but people prefer to take Advil as it's not addictive and won't damage us.

Someone cripples the device for me in a user friendly manner that doesn't require me to think about which apps I should avoid whenever I visit the app store.

The most exciting aspect of this coming to fruition is that it may become socially acceptable to be 'unreachable'. The shit I get from my social circle for not answering phone calls or taking hours to respond to texts is annoying af.

Technology is there (samsung know/android 7 work mode), it 'just' needs UX - separate distraction-free desktop with notifications only from few allowed apps.