Damn! Damn! Damn!

Sorry to hear! My phone was run over by a big truck earlier this year, so I feel your pain.

Might I suggest using cloud-based storage in the future, so you don't lose pictures or files? It also frees up storage on your phone, because you can delete the images from your phone but keep them stored in the "cloud." Google and Apple both have free storage of something like 5 gigs.
Sorry to hear about that. I know how you must have felt!

For the sake of privacy I purposely chose not to do a Cloud backup (I disabled it), and I doubt I'll enable it on my new phone.

Why? In the "small print" of the User Agreement that nobody ever reads, once you upload something to the Cloud you lose control of it. (Or maybe it's ownership, I forget). I doubted this for years, but then this came up during a discussion I had with a good friend who worked for one of the Cloud companies (a subcontactor company), and he confirmed that, yes. Once someone uploads a photo to the Cloud, they (the Cloud people) are free to sell or share it as they see fit. And I disagree with this.

(As a recovering Audiophile I don't "do" digital music or videos either, as I like to physically own my LPs, CDs, DVDs, and/or BluRay discs.)

Anyway, I dug my own grave as it were, and now I'm paying the price.

(Edit: My buddy Bill who used to work for the Cloud just shot me a text; "The Cloud is the Devil!")