Ok, just to be clear, with iOS now there are pages to the left and right of the "normal" home pages. If you keep swiping left, you get to what is the "App Library" where iOS has organized the apps into folders based on the metadata about the apps themselves, so "Recently Added," "Utilities," etc. Those folder work just as any folder does. If you keep swiping to the right, once on the home screen you get to a widget screen were you can have widgets for frequently used data. For example, I have widgets there for Calendar, Weather, and Battery status. It is possible to have NO widgets, in which case that screen is blank. Given that you described the situation that way, I'm wondering if that is what you really saw, a blank widgets screen? Sort of a stab in the dark, here, but just wondering. Also, it is possible now to have widgets on the home screen. Do you have any there? I have been running iOS 16 from the day it was released and have not seen what you have reported, so I don't think it's systemic.