I thought the upgrade to metal/glass + new design looked great which I included in "hardware".

Beyond that https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Pixel-9-vs-Pixel-8... shows:

- Much brighter screen - Next gen tensor chip - 50% ram upgrade - Better camera + battery - SOS functionality - Better ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

Holistically felt like meaningful improvements across the board to me, but I understand where you're coming from. I think maybe I have lower expectations for improvements year to year