I set mine up to do two things - if my phone is in sleep focus it deactivates sleep focus, so I’ll use it when waking up in the morning. In any other focus it’s an auto rotate toggle. Both of these are actions that would usually require extra presses or command center taps and it’s quite nice to have them on a button instead.

Honestly no, I’m not a huge fan of sliding my thumb all over the screen and typing with one hand is about as fast. Didn’t use it much when I was in Android phones back in the day either.

Yes, this sure is a random, boring picture of a cat. Flatter your kitty with better framing (you’re cutting off ear floof at the top), and a more interesting background and lighting!