Can someone please explain to me why I would ever want

for apps that I want to be part of my identity

a (smart) wallet

that’s not connected to my ENS or any of my other onchain history?

I don’t want this but everyone is excited about smart wallets that force this

Founding Engineer shadow.xyz | Values-Aligned Communities | citizen of Black Rock City

There is no future for EOAs, only smart accounts / smart contract wallets. 

The endgoal is for you to login to a new app, and connect that to your already existing smart account. Or create a new smart account and decide to connect it / link it later.

Everything is much easier when it's all smart contracts.