Battery degradation isn't really a function of use as much as its a function of abuse.

Phone's are designed to drive their batteries hard. If you are gentle about charging it slowly and keeping it in the 30-80% state of charge region it will last a long time.

The worst thing you can do is aggressively charge it to full and drain it till dead constantly. It will last a few hundred cycles before it gets seriously degraded.

A lot of people unfortunately (fortunate for smartphone companies) do exactly that (you know that person in your life who's phone is always dead?).

Alternatively, a lot of people destroy their phone/tablet battery by leaving it plugged in all the time with 100% charge.