No one's lying. They're just describing a subjective experience in ways that are influenced by everything they've read about the "grip of death." Furthermore, I'd wager that your wife's retelling is also a subjective report influenced by what "everybody knows."
None of these TAs has a case on their iPhones, which eliminates the issue?
1. This has been going on for at least two years, so it must be a mixture of old and new iPhones. To be honest, neither of us could tell an old iPhone from a new iPhone.
2. All of the service would have been on AT&T, which is really crappy in San Antonio (which is also a hoot because they were headquartered here for many years).
3. One of her SAs from India got so mad when her iPhone cut off that she flung it hard enough against the library wall as to break it into several pieces.
4. My wife's boss has had an iPhone since the beginning and bitches about how you have to hold it, “just so” constantly. He also thought the episode in item 3 was funny, and outlined the mark on the wall with tape and put a sign underneath of it that said, “If you intend to smash your iPhone against the wall, please aim here as we don't want to have to repaint the entire library.” Everyone thought it was funny but eventually the Dean of the Library said to take it down.
5. As far as the all cel phones do this argument - the answer is no they don't. I have a Mil-Spec Samsung phone on Verizon. It does not do smart things (but neither do I). I have used it in moving cars, private aircraft, elevators, metal buildings, and held it in every conceivable manner with my gorilla sized hands - and never had a call dropped.