I agree. 700 is steep... I pay just about as much as you do for phone, in fact I paid £290 for my current one.
Maybe it's a bit sad that there isn't that much progress lately (compared to early to mid 2010s), but it also means that i will be able to continue to use my phone for several more years without much problems (Except for Android updates, but I already have custom ROM installed).
[1] https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-85...
A lot of people think custom ROM is going to give you a secure device but hardware vulnerabilities sometimes have to be fixed on a higher level.
FP5 sports an OLED. Xiaomi devices don't AFAIK.
Its apples to oranges to compare with any Xiaomi device.
Xiaomi is not modular, ever. Xioami have no user replaceable battery or screen. Xiaomi have a proprietary UI (non-standard Android) and many do not allow to run a different OS than it came with. I wouldn't trust Xiaomi or any of that Chinaware with my PII.
FP4 allows all of that and its likely FP5 does, too. The nice thing about repairable smartphone with long software support is akin to iPhones (though from like X till 13 was tough to repair); great resale value and good hand-me-down for your kid.