The one area where cables still win is speed. My 11 can be charged by 50% in seemingly about 20-30 minutes from a high output (i.e. iPad) charger.

On my wireless pad that much charge will take a couple hours.

That's fine overnight, but sometimes you need a lot battery ASAP

This is a good point. Though the battery management seems to have gotten good enough that these speed charges are less necessary.

Funny thing is the only time I run out of juice now is if I did not place my iPhone on the wireless charger straight enough. Apple spoke specifically to this pain so it must be widespread.

Yeah, that's the main cause.

Also occasionally when traveling, so combination of long days + higher than normal usage. I've got a battery case for those days that more or less doubles the built in capacity (at the cost of also basically doubling the weight)

Ya travel batteries are a good fill in for those circumstances.

I suspect Covid has had a big nerf on battery use overall.

There is wireless Carplay, my previous BMW had it like 2 years ago? I hope it will get more common. No cable required. There is also wireless charging on the middle console. Worked quite well.

The problem is that people don't upgrade their cars every few years like they upgrade their iPhones. There are many people out there who still don't have a wireless connectivity system whether just for Bluetooth music or CarPlay.