Even my cheap Android phone does this better, although I wish there were more modes like triple, short then long, 2 short then long, or changing action for when screen is locked vs unlocked (e.g. flashlight when locked, toggle VPN when unlocked).
But it’s at least something.
Each action requires a long press. A short press would show you the ringer state if you were looking at the screen, or prompt you to long press if you set it to control other functions.
If my phone is in my pocket, a short press does nothing, it wouldn’t even give me a short vibrate to inform me that the phone is on silent.
This has to be the biggest oversight of this button.
You can make it do a bunch of stuff if you get creative with shortcuts.
My action button silences the media volume (and the phone just in case) and then vibrates the phone to tell me it has done this IF the phone is in a face-down orientation. Otherwise it toggles the flashlight on or off.
I’ve seen people with dozens of actions tied to the button depending on focus mode, orientation, time of day, location, all sorts of stuff.
So it can only be used for one thing at a time? (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iphe89d61d66/ios)
Even my cheap Android phone does this better, although I wish there were more modes like triple, short then long, 2 short then long, or changing action for when screen is locked vs unlocked (e.g. flashlight when locked, toggle VPN when unlocked).

But it’s at least something.
Yes, one thing at a time.
Each action requires a long press. A short press would show you the ringer state if you were looking at the screen, or prompt you to long press if you set it to control other functions.
If my phone is in my pocket, a short press does nothing, it wouldn’t even give me a short vibrate to inform me that the phone is on silent.
This has to be the biggest oversight of this button.
You can make it do a bunch of stuff if you get creative with shortcuts.
My action button silences the media volume (and the phone just in case) and then vibrates the phone to tell me it has done this IF the phone is in a face-down orientation. Otherwise it toggles the flashlight on or off.
I’ve seen people with dozens of actions tied to the button depending on focus mode, orientation, time of day, location, all sorts of stuff.