I use verizon prepaid, my plan is 5 gigs for 25 a month (which is plenty of data for me and a really decent rate rivaling walmart-type plans), and I just upgraded to the TCL 10 5G UW phone which cost me <$300. Runs like a dream, competitive with phones that cost double that.

Postpaid is basically a scam, the plans are just more expensive AND you're on the hook for X amount of years, in exchange for small upfront savings on a phone (but not even in all cases).