If you use it for 3 years, $1000 is about a dollar a day. Does a better phone generate that much value each day - about 1/5 of a cappucino? Probably.
It answers better on HN? Gives you more value answering messages or watching YouTube?
Which far fetched edge case scenario do you need to justify the very small diminishing returns between a high end and premium phone?
...idk I think people just like premium phones, it's not that deep