Yeah, I would stick with this plan even though you don’t want to.
I am somewhat optimistic about next year’s generation of phones when it comes to compactness, and I would wait to see what is offered in 2026.
Small phones come and go, and since it’s been a while now since a good one I think they will come back next year. You never know, but I think signs point that way for Apple and Google.
When it comes to folding phones, I have not been a fan of any folding phones historically, but since yesterday I have been using a Galaxy Z Fold7 and this is the first time the form-factor has made sense to me. If this is the technology we will be seeing in future folding phones I would wait a year.
TL;DR this seems like a terrible time to buy a phone IMO