Disclaimer: I haven't been on the road at all yet.
OP, I relate because I had a dumbphone til I was about 25, by choice. Indestructible was right, and couldn't beat that battery life. Plus, most importantly, not being glued to the screen all the time.
Finally caved and got a smartphone. It doesn't have as high of quality of pictures as I'd like though. Most indispensable uses I have for it have been: Instant access to bank account, Internet, and digital proof of car insurance; Pandora; memo-taking; calculator; and Grindr. I'm not sure how important/practical any of these uses are for on the road. Notably, there's also the Kindle app so you don't have to lug hard copy books around...But personally, I just use a dedicated Kindle device for that.
You say "high-quality" photos; what kinds of photos are you wanting to take? I have an Olympus and a Nikon...I could never rival with my smartphone the landscape and close-up macro shots these cameras take. But I've seen pretty decent smartphone pics of medium-distance subjects.
There's also the slightly pain-in-the-butt process of transferring the pictures from dedicated camera to computer. My Nikon has bluetooth transfer capability but I found it just as cumbersome to work with their software program (could just be me). Without the bluetooth, there are USB cords to deal with, and a laptop or access to a computer. Not to mention, Idk how common the bluetooth capability is in most dedicated cameras, but I know my Nikon was about $600 new (was a gift). With even a cheap a smartphone, you have instant ability to send or upload your pictures anywhere you need them to go.
Just my two cents and some things to think about, I guess.
If you do get a smartphone, I highly recommend a hard-back case for it. Even if I were to purposefully slam it face-first into the ground, nothing's going to crack, cause the hard ridges around the whole screen keep the actual screen from coming into contact with anything. I can't even count how many times I've dropped my smartphone on hard surfaces in the years I've had it, and it doesn't have a single scratch. Clear screen protectors are awesome too--just replace it when it gets too marked up. My dumbphone made it through a ton of abuse, but it definitely showed its wear and tear.