I hadn't been using the lightning SD card reader for my iPhone much lately. Importing photos used to be a pain and a long process.
It looks like this is about to change, for the better. I've been running the iOS 12 beta for a few weeks now (mainly because it groups notifications like Android does), and I wanted to import a couple photos I had on my camera (I'm in the middle of a trip and I don't have my computer with me).
The new screen caught me by surprise. Not only is it much nicer, but the photos load much, much faster and selecting them by date is straightforward.
A very welcome improvement. I might use it more often in the field now, if only for an extra copy of my images (remember to back everything up before it's too late!).