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Plenty of people buy expensive phones for the specs and features, yet either have no interest in jewelry or see it as a negative status symbol.

And by plenty you mean minority.

Obviously, but the question I was responding to was, "Why buy a sleek phone made of premium materials just to bury it in the cheapest, ugliest, chunkiest plastic case you can find?"

Because the hardware and os updates matter more than how it looks and you only get the good stuff in a fragile "glass sandwich". So if you want it to survive a fall, you spend $25 and leave it in a case until it's cooked 3 years later but still the original screen and hasn't needed anything fixed.

I don't think the super cheap and chunky phone cases are analogous to a wrap here.

I know more than a few people with very expensive phones covered in thin carbon fiber style cases which are there purely to protect the glass and metal from egregious scratches, though.

Its not adamantium, its still just plastics, glass, metals, and electronics.

I would never sit hours somewhere waiting to get my phone fixed, I value my time.