I'm more than olde enough to remember, but, actually, I've found call quality to be substantially better since all-digital was the norm, with the exception being when one endpoint or the other is doing something weird. What I remember from the days you are romanticizing is a palpable reduction in quality for long-distance calls, with even local calls having, often, worse quality than most calls do now.
Nope. We still have old-school landline here (they won't be terminated for a few years yet). I just did a test, and the difference is huge. Landline 1 - Smartphone 0.
Also the landline works even when the power line shut down, because it has it's own seperate power network.
