This is a pretty mainstream behavior that is maybe particularly prevalent in America. Though I think it’s abated elsewhere more by regulation than consumer preferences.
People will generally pick the cheapest/worst version of things if it’s more accessible/convenient or if the ability to discern value per dollar is difficult. In those situations people generally decide less dollars / fast is best.
I think this is why the “middle” is hallowing out for most product segments. The masses want bad/easy/cheap and the 1% want exclusivity/highbrow.
For some product segments, the economics of software development and mass production have completely eliminated the high end. The classic example is in smartphones: you can spend around $1000 for an Apple iPhone 16 or Samsung Galaxy S24 but there's literally nothing else more exclusive or higher quality available. I can't get a better phone at any price.
Completely true in some segments and you can see apple even tried the 1%er watch thing with the ceramic editions. They did keep the Hermes straps around, so it’s really just veblen good accessorizing now.
On the other hand there’s the old line about how America is great because the minimum wage worker and CEO both drink the same Coke.
Nowadays food has stratified far more and you’re more likely to have the bottom end drinking discount label house brand soda while the 1% doesn’t even drink Coke but instead some artisanal small batch thing you’ve never heard of for $5/can.
I'm not sure what you'd be looking for in a better phone. They're bounded by current CPU, battery, and screen technology, and flagship phones are pretty close to the best that's possible. Unless you literally want a gold bezel.
It's easy to imagine better - you would get the contruction worker phone features - extreme durability, quick swappable batteries, standard charging dock - with the high-end camera and other specs of the iphone. You could even imagine hot-swappable batteries, perhaps.
I guess one could also argue that actually Apple has diversified into so many SKUs that there is indeed a high end. HN/techie crowd is always buying the latest and greatest version Pro/Pro Max or whatever every year or two,.. but look at the phones your parents/in-laws are using.
Apple will happily sell you current year - 1, current year - 2, or the infrequently updated SE model. Mass market is the people buying those and holding them for 3..4..5+ years. We often go out with friends who are teachers and one had the iPhone 11 she apologized takes bad photos so please take group photos with ours, while the other had the 13ish with error messages popping up about his free iCloud being full. My FIL uses a hand-me-down iPhone Xs for banking because he doesn't trust his Android security, etc.
No, they're really not high end (at least not in developed countries). Any upper-middle class person can afford the best smartphone on the market. There is no meaningful exclusivity. It's not like with luxury cars where there are real high end products available that are completely out of reach.
I think electronics stand out as an area where veblen goods don’t really exist. Partially this is due to scale vs bespoke artisanal works.
That is the differentiation between a 50k vs 200k vs 1M car is often the hand crafted mechanical and luxury touches. Often the core platform of these vehicles is even shared in the case of the VW group and its various halo brands. The things that make a luxury car better are not mass produced.
One cannot hand craft an artisanal CPU better than Apple/Arm designs in a TSMC fab, nor a screen better than Sharp/Samsung, nor a cellular modem better than Apple/Qualcomm, etc. The things that make electronics better are the result of billions worth of R&D/infra with the intention of producing tens of millions to billions of devices.
People will generally pick the cheapest/worst version of things if it’s more accessible/convenient or if the ability to discern value per dollar is difficult. In those situations people generally decide less dollars / fast is best.
I think this is why the “middle” is hallowing out for most product segments. The masses want bad/easy/cheap and the 1% want exclusivity/highbrow.