iPhones are more expensive, and are thus status symbols. That's it. That's the phone.
Parents need to say "no" more often, try to provide opportunities for kids to exercise some real & positive agency, and also try to educate their kids about types of youthful stupidity. I'm not saying that'll prevent stupid stuff...but you can at least hope that they'll learn a bit more from the experience if they have both a cognitive framework for how they screwed up, and a bit more reality-based self-esteem.