I'm surprised at how little info is displayed for my iPhone on the screen. No battery level or signal strength or anything. Is this normal? I have an iPhone 12 and 2022 Aspec/Advance.

 

If your phone is properly paired via Bluetooth and is physically in the car, battery level and signal strength will be displayed.
Try restarting the iPhone.(Settings>General>Shut Down and then power up again.)

 

Does it have something to do with CarPlay? I use that 95% of the time.

 

I don't know about CarPlay, but Android Auto displays phone status when it's running, in addition to it being displayed when AA isn't running.

 

My understanding is the battery level and signal on the “Status Area” gets the info via Bluetooth. Since CarPlay bypass Bluetooth and uses usb / wifi, the unit won’t get those info, but it is shown within the Home Screen of CarPlay.

 

Mine is the same. To be honest, that entire section of the display is largely worthless. It's a huge missed opportunity. I have a '20 Advance and the only useful thing that part of the screen ever does is show the current song while I have CarPlay doing navigation. They have the same crappy 3 "cards" that they had with the 2019 RDX release, and not even the slightest update to form or function since. However... CarPlay does display those things so in the end, it doesn't bother me per se.

 

Yeah I assume it defaults to CarPlay. I haven’t tried to connect without CarPlay but I assume it would have more info.