This made a lot (more) sense when even corded charging was kind of slow and meant that the use time to charge time was pretty bad; ~2 hours to charge: ~12 hours to use gives an optimistic 6 use/charge time ratio, but now that fast charging and USB-C power deliver devices can charge in ~30 minutes and last ~20 hours that gives a use/charge ratio of 40. Given that if I have to leave my phone on a wireless charger for much longer; I greatly increase the risk that I'm picking up an undercharged phone.
But like in your use case, it's a nice to have thing that provides standby charging and can prevent your phone from at least loosing power over the day. Honestly, I think the best solution would be a USB-C dock so that you would have the convienience of wireless with the fast speed (and PC connection potentionally) of a wired connection.
I have done some testing with the 3rd party iPhone chargers recently. I have a device that measures the number of watts the charger is generating for the phone. The limit on wireless charging is 7.5 watts and many of them don’t quite get there. Most are between 5 and 6 watts. Now this is about the same as the stock Apple charger that comes with your iPhone. I ended up buying a 3rd party charger that supports up to 20 watts for the fast charging compatible iPhones such as 8, X and Xs. You also need the $20 Apple usb-c to lightning cable, but the result is a truly fast charge. Of course my 2015 Samsung Galaxy s6 came with a fast charger in the box, but I am glad that with pricy accessories we can have the same with the iPhone
I have to agree. A dock or pad with a cable or two and an inductive charging mat would be ideal. I like my setup, but it'd be much easier to remember to charge my AirPods if I could just place them on a pad, or just casually laying my phone down, and still getting a charge, but having the option of a cable for the fast charge and being able to charge and use simultaneously.
But like in your use case, it's a nice to have thing that provides standby charging and can prevent your phone from at least loosing power over the day. Honestly, I think the best solution would be a USB-C dock so that you would have the convienience of wireless with the fast speed (and PC connection potentionally) of a wired connection.