> Given how fast phones become outdated, and battery life deteriorate, 200$ is what I want to pay for a phone if I have to replace it every other year...

Outside of the phones which stop getting security updates, that says more about the success of marketing rather than any real requirement. If you aren't hung up on needing to have the latest hardware, you can buy an iPhone every 4 years and not miss anything other than, perhaps, the need to uninstall something like Facebook's bloated apps.