Oh yeah, it's easily argued that early mobile phones were an iteration and extension of land lines. I don't think I ever saw the huge brick phones in the wild when they were new, but I remember the bag phones. But if the phones were like the rechargeable toys I had in the mid '80s, they took eight hours of charging to get thirty minutes of use.

I didn't use email until about 1996 at which point the interface was fairly slick. I have little doubt the early years took a computer science degree to manage.

I think we largely agree that early iterations of technology are routinely cumbersome.

Where I think we're talking past each other is how people manage those challenges. I'm arguing electric cars are different from mobile phones and early internet (which again, I agree were cumbersome) because if you were out of range of limited cell towers or misplaced your log of IP addresses, you could still make a phone call from home or write a letter. To the user, a mobile phone or email added to the resources they had available.

Most people own a single car per adult. Purchasing an electric car means giving up direct access to a gas powered car. Early mobile phone users didn't give up access to their home and office phones. Early internet users didn't give up access to the postal service or voice telephones. That's the difference I'm arguing. That's why I argue it isn't a routine transition of technology.