When there is a notification, I can use my apple watch to separate out notifications that I need to immediately respond (e.g. important message/call from work or family) vs ones I can take care of later without taking out my phone. Before having the apple watch, I have to take out my phone every time when there is a notification.
I also use Apple pay with the watch all the time without taking out my phone.
Both of these use cases works with non-cellular version as well. Of course you'll need your phone nearby or have wifi so you can receive messages, but it doesn't require you to have a cellular watch or have the cellular plan on the watch.
Didn’t Zuckerberg want to merge all the messaging apps together? Don’t really know how that goes, i wonder if they just don’t put as much resource in WhatsApp now and wait for the merge.
https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/30/facebook-combine-messenger-instagram-whatsapp/