Well now that I have been using the 16 Pro Max in the wild for a bit, I can safely say that............the vloggers and reactors don't know what they are talking about.
The big jump in battery life all by itself justifies the upgrade. It's really cool using the phone all say and only seeing the charge going down only 2-4 points. The new shutter button is for me placed correctly - I MUCH prefer landscape shots to portrait. I suspect this may also be because I am not into selfies. The phone is also very snappy and responsive and like past iPhones the color calibration on the display is flawless. Oh, and I found a folio case that comes close to the classic Apple folio case - it is the Shieldon leather folio with MagSafe.