Looking at your phone screen is not flying without LOS.
Let's compare with a few regulations for manned aircraft.
The rules say, for example, that below minimums an aircraft must maintain visual reference with the runway. Does that mean the pilot can't glance at the airspeed and thrust ?
The rules say that a visual approach is a maneuver conducted by visual reference to terrain. Does that mean if a guy accepts a visual from downwind he has to fly the next 5 minutes without looking inside at all, not even at the airspeed or thrust set? Can he look inside to complete the checklist?
The minimums for a "visual" approach are, among other things, 800M of visibility - are you &%£#ing kidding me? If you think anyone is going around doing visual approaches in 800M, well...
When you're flying VFR, you are responsible for collision avoidance by looking out of the window. Does that mean you are prohibited from looking at your charts in order to navigate? Are you allowed to look at your fuel gauges?
My point is exactly that we don't need people to agree blindly with stupid rules.
Rules almost always require a little bit of interpretation. I doubt a court would find that the intention of the LOS rule for UAVs was to prevent you looking at your telemetry or camera feed. The intention was, IMO, quite clear - that you maintain sufficient visual reference to avoid traffic.
So yeah, looking at your phone, whilst still able to maintain sufficient visual reference with your drone to see traffic near it, is not flying without LOS.
Flying with
goggles on is flying without LOS. Flying 5km away, or in the middle of a town whilst hiding from a nearby police station with your
goggles on..... You get the idea.