So...
probably thousands of tons of electronic refuse in landfills to make these companies more 5G-generated profit
Do we hear the sound of "We have stepped up our recycling technologies, synchronous to our great 5G push, in order to assure the least impact possible when handling the expected consumer upgrade cycle"?
No? Then it's just another smokescreen of taking money from the bottom - starting with the low paid tech assembly workers, up through the consumer sold on New and Shiny, and all the way through to the beaches of third-world Asia and Africa where the stuff eventually ends up in the dump - to those who already have enough.
Yes, yes, cynical and "capitalism!", and all that. But since I am indeed frolicking in my cynicism right now (and playing Devil's advocate sometimes is fun!!) you can't deny that there's more than a grain of truth there. And no, I don't need 5G: I'm almost always on Wi-Fi, with 1GB being my usual monthly cellular usage.