I think at heart the iPhone is secure. Combined with an open source firewall like the new[ish] Lockdown app it cuts out a lot day-to-day tracking already. It has proven itself not to leak and Tim Cook’s Apple does take privacy at heart.

The rest of the [mostly hardware] features, are indeed rather expensive, but I’m guessing whether the targeted demographic values them or it will become a phone provided by the company/NGO they work for.