I also hate having to keep score on my phone, as not having to deal with it was one of the things I enjoyed about being on the golf course. Nevertheless, I will make these arguments in favor of phone scoring:
My club (at Forrest Richardson's Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto) is totally run by volunteers. The hardest thing to get people to do is run the tournaments. Phone scoring makes it easier, because the tournament chairman doesn't have to sit with a laptop until play is completed, entering in scores in a scoring program to determine who won. Phone scoring releases people from that burden, and makes guys more willing to do the other work (checking entries, setting up tee times, etc.) of running an event. For those of you lucky enough to be in private clubs, that shouldn't be an issue, because having the pros run your tournaments is part of what you're all paying for.
That said, the change makes me sad, as one of the fun parts of a tournament in the old days was sitting with a beer opposite the bulletin board outside the pro shop, and watching my good friend Rich Bin (former pro when the course was just Palo Alto Muni) write in everybody's scores in his lovely golf pro calligraphy, as a bunch of us stood around and critiqued the quality of the play. Now, a lot of the guys in our club head for their cars as soon as they hole out on 18, and have their scores verified via Golf Genius. We've lost some of the camaraderie of the club as a result. Since the renovation, the new operator of the course really isn't involved in running our tournaments, so the pros don't help us out. He gives us a good price, so I guess I have to deal with it.
That said, thanks to Forrest's excellent work, and the pandemic, our club has grown substantially, including a lot of younger guys who are sticks, are fun to play with and add to the club. My observation is that they can't spend all day at the course, even for a tournament, because wives and kids demand their time. If phone scoring makes it a little easier for them to participate, I'm willing to put up with it. We have to remember the doldrums the golf business was in prior to the pandemic, partly due to the time required. If we don't get younger people to play, there won't be course or clubs for us old farts to play.
Just my .02