Getting along with only the iPhone

I think you need to go to your account, find iCloud, tap on it and turn on the back up. Also turn on the things you are saving. Notes, photos and so on. I did not see anything on files but if you go to files which should be in folders, make sure it is saving files to iCloud. On the Mac do not know. I am the opposite, I just got an iPad 9 gen just for same thing as you and also has Apple smart keyboard.

THe biggest issue is going to be the web browsing part. There are websites that just do not play well with safari on the phone. Also filling out forms in safari on the phone can be problematic. A keyboard will help. If you are going to be using Apple products exclusivly, then iCloud drive is what you will want to use for your files. You only get 5gigs of storage for free. If you want more you will need to buy it. 50gigs costs $0.99, 200 gigs costs $2.99 and 2 terabytes costs $9.99. THese are all monthly costs. When on your mac select the files you want to move to the cloud then use command plus shift plus i from anywhere in the finder to open up your iCloud drive folder. You can then move the files to a folder you create or one that is already there.

If you're going to just use a phone, youtube will be an issue cause of the adds, as far as I know; you can't block them unless you use add blocker for safari and not the appp its self.

I use dropbox personally for my cloud stuff, you might want to try that, although you do need to pay for it and it can be quite expencive vs ICloud which is something like $9 a month for 2 tb.

I have relied only on my iPhone for short lengths of time, say a week or so while traveling. It does pretty well, and you can always use flash drives and such with the assorted adapters for storage. I strongly suggest having some sort of backup or alternative device that can fill in if your phone has an issue. Before I got the iPhone, there were a few times I was stuck with no working computer/Internet connection for up to a week. It can cause a huge problem. So maybe an iPad or something. I have several backup options, and several cloud accounts.

I've had only my iPhone since mid 2017 when I still had the OG SE. I sold my MBP after realizing I wasn't using it for anything I couldn't do faster on my iPhone. Since then I've upgraded my iPhone twice; first to a XR and now to a 12 mini. I have Apple Music so that takes care of my iTunes library (although a lot of my songs got matched with the wrong versions--it may be better now). I also upgraded to the 50GB iCloud plan and put everything from my documents folder from my Mac in there. This has worked well for me. Like on my Mac, I have VLC player for all my media that I don't want getting mixed in with my music. I also don't use a bluetooth keyboard unless you count when I connect my Braille display; BSI FTW. A bluetooth keyboard would come in handy sometimes though.

Having said all that, I'm considering getting a laptop or tablet to augment my phone, mostly because battery life on the smaller phones is terrible if you use your phone a lot. And yes, I did put the magsafe battery pack on Santa's list. lol Also, the general concensus seems to be that a lot of productivity is more efficient easier in Windows, so have also put a MS Surface on said Christmas wish list.

Consider checking to see how much would you get for your Mac. If is a nice price consider an iPad. 9 GenI heard is good. Maybe the iPad 9 gen with 128 GB and a smart keyboard. Logic tech have one. I went with the apple smart keyboard because it is easy to pair. Just need to wait for it. They are behind with them. Hope Jan gets here soon.

For me I have to have a computer. I do a lot of gaming, sound design, and mixing music. I can't do that on an iPhone alone. But for watching youtube, browsing the web, and messaging people it does it's job. I can't say much for writing documents on here, I prefer a computer for that.

I've did this for about a month. I would upgrade to a pro or pro max. If all you want to do is shop, email, text, visit a few websites you should be fine. I use a bluetooth keyboard. I didn't have my pc hooked up at the time. Now I use my pc for most of my tasks. I could use an iPhone for those tasks if needed. Shopping might be a little slower on a phone. However one thing you could do is request the full desktop version of a site. That should take care of any problem sites.