I don't find it that odd, but what I do find odd is that in these days of smartphones the software dialers don't make it trivially easy to block incoming calls. You have to choose an app if you want to block calls and most people are understandably a bit hesitant to replace the default app that came with the phone with some third-party one of unknown provenance. This is a pity, because if users could easily share telemarketing blocklists and so on you could shut down abusive calling industries very very easily.
Not true for the iPhone: just add the number to a contact, and block the contact.
I have a contact "Blocked Telemarketers" for exactly this purpose. Every time a new one hits me, I just add its number to this contact. Trivially easy.
You don't even need to add a contact. You can block any number on the iPhone by going into the Recents list in Phone and picking the 'Block this caller' option.
I've got quite a long list of blocked sales numbers, mostly Virgin Media and Three.
What I really want though is a very simple feature. I don't want my phone to accept phone calls unless the number is in my address book already. Its so straightforward and already implemented in other communication mediums, I do not understand why it is not a feature yet.
Just one vendor including this feature would force all of them to.
My parents do this the old fashioned way. They don't pickup unless they recognize the number.
In fact, my colleagues do the same, and this has actually caused problems for On call if the colleague calling at 4am isn't in the callee's circle of friends.
Android 5+ (or maybe 5.1) includes this - you can set it to priority notifications only, and then turn calls on but say to only include calls from your contacts.
