It's just the "cognitive load" UX idea, with extremely non-technical people having extremely low limits before they decide to never try again, or just feel intimidated and never try to begin with.

It's the Apple story all over again.

https://lawsofux.com/cognitive-load/

But every chat app I use (including SMS) has dates and times indicated either directly on the message or in the thread.

iOS groups days of messages under a single timestamp.

You have to drag-over for any detail.