...I get the idea that you're not a photographer.
I mean, my photos sell, but not nearly enough to make that my occupation. Call that what you will. I don't normally print them any bigger than 18*30 either, and I don't use a cell phone camera for it. But under most situations, I pretty well could without changing much, and I barely dip my foot into the rabbit hole of gear.
...I'm also getting the idea that you've never done serious mountaineering
I mean, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades. They're fairly welcoming mountains I guess, it's no tlike I went to Everest or anything, but it's not like the folks who wander around the Appalachian hills a bit either. Definitely far more serious than the average person, although the most I've done in time and distance is a bit under 50 miles in the course of a week, so a relatively leisurely pace even with the elevation change.
it's very possible to get lost in the alps, and people do and subsequently die each year.
I've never died, in the alps or elsewhere, but my perception is that people who die in the wilderness are either tremendously unlucky and encounter an avalanche or something, or else they're unprepared and lack either adequate shelter or adequate food to account for possible minor mishaps. You should expect that things can go wrong, not just in the mountains but in any aspect of life, and be prepared for the consequences as much as possible. From googling it, it looks like the biggest killer in the Alps is sudden storms, so... Well, I don't know the solution to that off-hand since it's not my region, but it seems like it should be possible to insulate yourself if there's enough snow on the ground and you've packed properly. I can see why it would be helpful to have more precise location information in that situation though, considering that it is built up well enough to give you a decent chance of finding more comfortable accommodation.
or being a capable mapping
I'd trust Google maps over Garmin maps in general. Not saying either is perfect, but I've definitely had more problems with Garmin, back in the days when I used them for anything other than farm stuff. Even with a dedicated GPS, I'd recommend just using the lat/long to find yourself on a proper paper relief map - the best maps here are USGS, but I imagine pretty much every decent government has got their own equivalent.
Having been in situations where I have needed to absolutely trust that I've got something to get me home,
First of all, home isn't where you need to get to unless you're so close enough that you should know the place like the back of your hand anyway. Otherwise, you just need to get somewhere that you can encounter a building or vehicle to sort out the situation. Which in the case of a storm would be to weather it there, or in the case of being lost would usually be to arrange some manner of vehicular transport from where you are to where you should be. It does entail relying on the kindness of strangers, but if it's an emergency then you'll just have to swallow your pride and do that.
Sure, you can get specialist, rugged smartphones with inbuilt failover GPS etc. but at that point you're basically buying a specialist device.
I mean, I'd probably want that anyway, if I lived in the Alps.
If you trust bringing your Apple as your main mode of navigation in anything other than your local town you deserve to die on a mountaintop.
I mean obviously if you just rush out into the wilderness with no prep and shout "Steve Jobs will save me!" then you're in for a rude awakening. But regardless of what tech you've got, you should already know exactly what route you're planning to take, every other thing, including maps and GPS is going to be a secondary thing, there as a backup to make sure you don't get off track. If you're adequately prepared, even the map should be unnecessary (though you should most definitely still have it just to confirm).