I have got a second one mainly for mapping, because i want to use a stylus during cold winter (with gloves) and hot summer with sweaty fingers. I hate touch inputs and with the stylus it works easier. This phone also has an SD card slot for all the different map apps, their map data and the OsmTracker photos.
Yes, this is one way. But you can use StreetComplete's overlay feature (since release https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/releases/tag/v57.0) to directly add benches and trash cans. This helps in avoiding to flood the note system with very small map features. When the overlay feature was not implemented i also added a lot of notes for benches/bins, but got a lot attention of other mappers because of this. So i switched to using OSMTracker to take notes. But now, i am a very happy user of the new things overlay.
Adding stairs is also possible, but a bit more complicated, so adding a note is fine.
Do you know this overlay feature already? This is definitely worth to check out.