RE: The difference between "expensive" and "overpriced"
I generally agree. I HATE buying stuff that's overpriced.
Phones are interesting. It was only about two phone cycles ago (for me) when carriers where still giving away top of the line phones (with a 2 year contract). They don't seem to do that any longer. I did get a top of the line Samsung just over two years ago. However, my wife needed one also and the deal was buy one/get one free so $800 became $400 each which is at least a little better. They are a little over two years old now and still working fine and I expect we'll use them until they die (hopefully at least a couple more years). Phones have absolutely skyrocketed in price over the last few years. By comparison, when the iPhone 4 was introduced you could upgrade or get one with a new line and 2 year contract for $199 to $299. Full retail price for an unlocked iPhone 4 was $599 to $699. Those prices have more than doubled and there is no option to get it cheaper with a contract.
I've always disliked Apple for their expense and more recently for the fact that they have led the way on creating products that are difficult or impossible to upgrade or repair yourself. That's become more common across all manufacturers but Apple led the way. I guess if you like their OS and/or other Apple specific software enough then maybe it is worth it. It never has been for me though.
There are many people I know that are basically incapable of using anything else and I am not going to get on their case about that because if you hand me a mac or an iPhone, I have no idea how to get it to work. So it is understandable that the reverse would also be the case. I do think that Apple does a magnificent job of making it very difficult for people to leave their products if they want to and while this is a bit devious it is actually a brilliant marketing strategy.
In the meantime I still laugh at anyone that has airPods because I've tried them out and they are NOT worth what is being charged for them... not even close.
It's been while since I have been exposed to those contract phones but I do remember that being the case when I was last living in the USA. As far as I know nothing like that exists or ever did exist in either Vietnam or Thailand.