In defense of the WSJ, this is a single column and columnist. On Fox Business (co-owned), another WSJ writer admitted to total disagreement the same day of the article. Me, I think that Apple will happily keep making computers, phones, watches and retain the ecosystem that can be seen as building into the intelligent house dreamed by SciFi for years. For a SF example, read “Beyond This Horizon” by Heinlein - protagonist tells phone to wait 10 minutes to give message. For a 1940s story, pretty durn long to wait for reality!
I so want a telephone that I can voice command ‘no calls except from family’ from 8pm to 8am and NO RING at all in those hours. I presume that, like my fellow FReepers, the money-bomb bombardment is incessant in all conservative households.
You can pretty much do that now on the iPhone. Set up your family contacts as "Favorites" and you can set "Do Not Disturb" mode on, with settings to allow calls from Favorites only. You could even schedule DND mode to come on automatically. I'm unsure (haven't tried) to use Siri to engage/disengage DND, but if it does, then you also have the voice control.
I have a land-line telephone that does some of that. I know, it sounds archaic having a land-line phone. Some years ago I bought an answering machine with five wireless handsets. It's programmed to have different ringtones for immediate family, friends, business and to be quiet for unknowns. Also announces them by name. When we hear the family ringtone or the close friend ringtone followed by name, we immediately pick up. The money-bomb calls are blocked. Wish my cell smartphone had these features.