But I'll bet you know 20 passwords, or more. That fundamental skill is not lost. You're just not getting any phone number practice anymore. You're getting password practice all the time, I'll bet.
Strong disagree. I don't remember passwords like I remembered phone numbers. Perhaps because I don't say them out loud, hand write them, and lunch them on a tactile keyboard frequently
Phone numbers, at least in the US, were much simpler 15+ years ago. Most people had a number starting with an area-code + first-3, out of say, 5-10 possible combinations.
EG, 123-444, 123-323, 123-789, 555-121. So, you really needed to remember the prefix and the last 4. There were exceptions, but most of your circle lived within this finite space of telephone numbers.