Apple making the iPhone changed an entire decade.
Apple is never going to make a $25 smart phone like you can get in India.
"Consumer" tech hasn't improved at all in my estimation since about 2002. The hardware has gotten better and the software has gotten more bloated, but a modern gadget can do roughly zero things that a gadget from 2002 couldn't.
In 2020 you can buy a second generation iPhone SE for €489, with a 1334x750 screen (at >6x pixel density) and 12MP camera.
These are not roughly equivalent pieces of hardware, and the software they run differs immensely. MMS is not Instagram.