Where is "here"? Wouldn't you say that any party making those sorts of judgements (iPhone users are sheep/Android users are poor) aren't worth listening to? Isn't that more of a reflection of "here's" culture than the individuals choice? Is it not that an individuals choice to buy something is more than just a cost decision?

There’s still a massive leap in logic that you aren’t including in your comment. It sounds like you should check your priors.

If you keep your phone 3 years, then that phone costs you a dollar or two per day and that’s within reach of many people. Lots of us keep the phone much longer than that and if you do plan on keeping the phone for a long time, Apple has a better reputation for supporting 5 year old devices than any budget Android maker. Apple’s hardware also has a pretty strong resale value. Apple phones are probably less expensive overall than lots of Android phones.