I don't really see the issue. Minimalism is a sliding scale.

Just because the design goal was for it to be more minimalist than a typical Android/iOS phone doesn't mean they have to go full-on "NO. It's only for phonecalls and maybe SMS!"

Playing music isn't particularly "maximalist", and WhatsApp certainly isn't (people in the US need to understand that WhatsApp is basically SMS for most of the world). Maybe maps is, but it's optional anyway so who cares.

This device looks very cool to me. But there's no way it won't cost an absolute fortune, which kills it IMO.

I am afraid there is nothing like minimalism when we talk about mobile phones. It is basically all or nothing. I mean, it seems like everybody only thinks about social media apps but I don't care about social media, I want my phone to run apps that control my smart home appliances, contain my public transport tickets, my ID card, my air tickets and other such convenient stuff. Most of these apps basically only exist for iOS or Android and some of them only work when downloaded from the official stores. So any phone achieving minimalism by using custom OS is just unusable for me and is equal to a dumb phone.