iPhones and other Apple products are not very expensive. They're not the cheapest products on the market, but that isn't really the point; Homo economicus ( http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2095 ) might consider it a luxury item, but that just doesn't describe the purchasing decisions and ethos of the vast majority of today's consumers.
Consequently, it's kind of a ridiculous assumption.
And if you can't? Do without. Don't pirate it. This is really not a hard concept: give those who create what you enjoy their due, or do without.
This isn't about morals, it's about economics. I'm not saying you should pirate things you can't afford, I'm saying that buying an iPhone is not a guarantee of being well-off, even absent the 'gift' factor.
Not for you, not for me; can you say that for everyone?
Data plans are irrelevant. I could well point out car insurance in the ancestor analogy.
EDIT: Allow me to clarify. A phone is a decision made once. The data plan, the price of the phone, these are all taken into account at the time the purchasing decision is made. Applications are a long chain of decisions which are each approached individually.
You need to rethink and reword this.
You are getting confused because you believe that paying for a service every day make it an every day purchase. You only purchase an iPhone once (although you will possibly buy another iPhone a year or two later.)
Paying off a home loan over a few decades doesn't make a house an everyday purchase. And paying for an iPhone over a couple of years (or signing any two-year contract) doesn't make that an everyday purchase either.