Dead iPhone 7 I bought 2 years ago, Apple Support insists it belongs to my ex-employer

And after 2 years, you can expect I don't keep that receipt and Apple refused to repair. What can I do?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtrloWxsh1A

This is my iPhone died all of a sudden this week. It just crashed all of a sudden even it was fully charged at that time. It can't power on. The home button is not clickable. All other buttons are not responsive. It literally turns into a brick. It was not damaged physically, not even a scratch.

I purchased it in late 2018 or early 2019 from Apple Store on University Ave in Palo Alto. But Apple refused to repair it nor acknowledging it because I lost the receipt since it's nearly 2 years ago.

For some reason Apple Support insists the iPhone should belong to my previous employer which gives a smart phone to every employee. Even though I returned it to my ex employer upon leaving 2 years ago. Apple still asks me to contact my previous employer's IT department to resolve this. WHAT??!! Is IT responsible to resolve ex employees' problems after 2 years of departure?

Apple can check Apple Stores' purchase records which takes literally less than 10 milliseconds, to verify my purchase but they refuse to do so.

After contacting Apple Support numerous times, I am still in ground zero this moment. And they insist "strictly following the right protocols", which maximize profits and ignore customers and choose to ignore facts, and suggests me a new phone since new models are much better and well supported.

So I decided this is beyond what I can take. It is time to dump all my 12 Apple products at home from Macs, iPhones, Apple watches and a big box of ugly adapters and cables. I'm done with Apple after all the years!

BIG questions:

[1] If you ask human to "strictly following protocols", why do you still need human? To chitchat or help unemployment?

[2] It is YOU, Apple still have business relationship with my ex employer to check the iPhone's ownership. Not ME who left 2 years ago. Why don't you follow your business protocol to check with them and asking me to do so? Since I don't have any business relationship or IT contact which is used to server internal employees, not ex employees.

[3] A smart phone controls every aspects of my life from a car key, wallet, communication, personal and corp identity, photo album, entertainment, work & schooling remotely ... the corps are totally not ready to take any responsibility, not even any useful backup plans when your smart phone dies, how get your life back in time? They never thought about this.

[4] Companies become stiff, dumb, zombish and out of touch with ground truth after growing big. None can avoid that looks like? Is that true?

But the question of me is what how can I survive without an iPhone. It is not easy. I'm conducting a few experiments and will have a sequel after 1 month.