Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s strange is that people still make this ridiculous comparison. Unless they’re severely out of touch with how the general populace think and what they value. Let’s talk phones, and just ignore the brand to start. Higher end devices often have better cameras, better support, better build quality. I’m sure you’ll find some random phone that competes with a flagship, but that’s irrelevant to the vast majority of us…
Not the OP, but presumably this is a diminishing returns argument? Clearly a Lambo is nicer than a Fiat, but most people can't or won't pay 10X more for it. The spread between, say, the iPhone 14 Pro at $999 and the Pixel 6a at $299 is a lot smaller, so the possibility that the 'returns' are still worth it to you doesn't seem so unbelievable to me, but I do see the point that the 6a is plenty good at the basics, and…
Do you value shutter lag? Support? Product ecosystem? Video quality? App ecosystem? Accessibility features? Build quality? Software updates?
The divide is as small or as big as each independent person makes it. But on average many people clearly see value in different product segments.
The trouble with discussing it on HN is that this is the exact wrong demographic for this. This is the site that discussed Dropbox by saying people could just use rsync. That routinely suggests technical workarounds to any project posted. many people will pay the extra money to not care.