You could also say "not sure how these are better than buying a 2-year old pixel". If good-enough is what you want, there are a ton of options, I won't disagree. I buy latest (at the time) phones because I plan to hang onto them for 3-4 years at a time.

So its really all about what you are looking for in a phone. If you think Apple has better UX and you don't mind the direction their hardware is going or have any aversions to their ecosystem, then, by all means, get an iPhone.