It's Apple's way of transitioning to a higher price point on their phones. Now they have the iPhone X at $1000 but oh, there's still have this iPhone 8 at the lower price point... I'm betting next year there is no more lower price point and the new standard is $1000 phones.
That's a pretty big point by itself. Lots of people with pre-7 phones looking for an upgrade that don't need or want all the X features.