You are ascribing broad motives and discounting alternatives.
I am sure their was some iPhone status effects, especially in iPhone's early days. But status effects follow other effects and die quickly if a product doesn't deliver.
--
I get fans.
I also get the anti-fan simplification syndrome of people who don't understand why Apple products have often appealed to others. Especially when those others are passionate at all.
Googling up articles that obscess of finding non-practical reasons for Apple enthusiasm isn't a good argument.
Apple has typically (for decades, with relatively few fails) had a cleaner level of design and polish vs. Microsoft and other alternatives.
That can be very hard to give up for those that appreciate it.
(Similarly for other consistently distinctively constructed product lines, emphasizing some other area of benefit, of course.)
--
Replies to every one of your links:
> "New research shows that owning an iPhone is the most common sign of wealth"
The article talks about a statistical link with wealth. Not psychology. I don't find it surprising that the wealthy are less price conscious.
> "Why the iPhone Is the Perfect Status Symbol"
The Huffington piece is a complete puff peice. ("A friend got an iPhone because she could not call Uber cabs on her Blackberry. [...] If there is any prospect of drinks on the horizon, she leaves her iPhone safely at home" [..] "There's irony somewhere in this but until Apple comes up with a product called iRony, and livestreams its launch we won't get it.")
Re the "iPhone Effect":
> Apple has always positioned themselves as an aspirational brand. The emphasis on unmatched quality levels, a clean user experience and a distinct and consistent design is at the core of what makes it the most valuable company in the world. [Emphasis mine.]
That is a lot of practical daily non-status value for less price conscious people to buy.
> As for identity, you may have never met an "apple" person, but it's absolutely an identity for many.
I get there are fans. But Apple fans for the most part have had good practical reasons. One big reason wasnt Apple so much as the cruft and shovelware (and now in OS advertising) of other vendors that for some of us gets achingly frustrating. (I have generally had Macs and Windows machines for decades. Pro's and con's for each, but good lord, Windows is still a bag of inconsistency, disorganized plethora's of niggling settings, and trashy interface choices in comparison. Even though I appreciate many reasons others preferred Windows.)
> It's a subculture
Again, Apple products are distinctive in a way that impacts people at a practical level. And that article is from 2002.
> People have called apple users "cult-like" [...]
People often have trouble understanding other people's choices. Article from 2001!
--
TLDR; Just because something can confer status, doesn't make status the reason people buy it. Especially 16 years after a high utility daily use product has been introduced and alternatives abound.
Takeaway: Let other's explain their own motives. Don't project narratives as if they are facts - regardless of how much they are repeated or satisfy you.
One serious research paper showing 60% of 10,000 iPhone owners across diverse demographics listing "status" as in their top 2 purchasing factors would realistically make the argument you are trying to make. Not the articles you listed.
The kinds of articles you thought worth quoting say more about you than Apple customers.
--
Devil's advocate: Apple has not always delivered, other vendors have other benefits, and Apple's legacy of user interface design is seriously marred by "flat design" in my experience. (Design should make usage simpler, not reduce pixels, color, texture, visibility of options or status, or other affordances. Don't get me started on Ives need to eliminate ports people actually used, or flatten keyboards into unreliability.)