The main reasons I'm going the "I-Phone paired w/InReach Mini" route are these:
1) I had already "crossed the line" & made the jump to a Garmin 60C a few years back, just prior to a WCPP trip.  Paired with the InReach Mini, the I-Phone gives me a far larger screen to view maps, pre-loaded on my phone.
2) Since I'll have my I-Phone along, I can leave my camera at home with my SPOT Messenger.
3) Wally13 spoiled my wife when he let me send her (& receive back) actual text messages from the park last year... so it's all HIS fault!

In hindsight, I crossed the one line myself, years ago, when I first opted to pick up the GPS (probably for a far north trip).  My wife pushed me across that second line after we exchanged those texts last Fall.  When I got home she looked at me as if to say, "What's the matter with you?  Wally13 keeps HIS family informed & vice versa.  Why can't you?"  Thus, my Christmas present was the InReach Mini!

So, that's my story, anyhow, and I'm sticking to it!

I can appreciate a "retro experience" akin to going back in time to experience things like Lewis & Clark. It certainly has its merits and helps us better appreciate what we do have now.  Lord knows I used to travel without any ultra-light gear and I think my only electronic device was my watch (&, later, a small, portable radio for weather reports)... very heavy & very simple but still not nearly as heavy & simple as Lewis & Clark.  Heck, why should we stop turning the clock back at Lewis & Clark?  Maybe we should shoot for doing it the way the Spanish conquistadors (like DeSoto & his crew) did it while crossing most of North America?  We could put on heavy metal armor and have at it in the north woods.  Why stop there?  Let's go back about 80,000 years and do it the way those boys (& girls) did who came up out of Africa for the first time.  They certainly traveled & communicated in an entirely different manner.  Heck, they might still have been swinging through the trees as far as I know... though trees do get a bit sparse in Egypt & the Middle Eastern deserts.  At least up North we'd have a few more trees to swing on.

Of course there is no "right answer" to the question of what technology is appropriate to bring with us into the woods.  On the other hand, there are certainly some "legal" answers in place.  I appreciate the sentiment behind some of the rules & regulations that have been set (ie. no motors, no drones, no unauthorized airplane flyovers, no cans, no bottles, no building 'wooden furniture', etc. & so on).  These mostly address issues which could either screw up the park OR screw up the experience of those visitors expecting "wilderness."  I think park officials have mostly hit the right balance with respect to these sorts of decisions, so far.  I'm also sure new regs will become necessary downstream as tech advances threaten the status quo.

As long as they're legal, I'm certainly OK with the tech choices of others... as long as they don't intrude into my wilderness experience expectations.  Finally, as far as that symbol of modern technology - the I-Phone goes - well, if anyone ever hears me making a phone call on it in Quetico, they have my permission to bust it up with a rock (and, of course, dutifully haul it with you to be properly disposed of once you leave the park).

Of course, in another 15 or 20 years from now, this discussion may become irrelevant, as chips embedded in our brains will connect us all to the internet via satellite no matter where we are.  Hmmm... this raises yet another question: can there truly be "wilderness" if we are plugged in 24/7 to outside community?  Ugh... guess I've leave that one for my grandchildren to deal with. 

All things considered, the "Lewis & Clark" approach might be such a bad stop, after all....

Jimbo   8-)