And the reason for that is that the market for phones in the US is greatly distorted by carriers - the handsets themselves (which are dirt cheap compared to the service), subsidies in the past and pure market dominance.

Canada might be similar, but outside of NA, people know exactly how much they pay for the handset and how much they play for the service (which is 5-10 times cheaper for similar limits), and as a result, most people don’t actually buy a flagship phone.

In the US, carrier subsidies on phones haven't been a thing in like 3-4 years now. The carriers have moved everyone to installment plans, and when buying a new phone, it's laid out pretty clearly how much the device costs up front. They then give you the option to pay for the phone outright, or pay monthly for the hardware (on top of your service.)

Frankly, most people in my life, family, friends, etc, are using flagship phones. I know people who keep said devices for 4+ years, but I genuinely don't know anyone using throw-away cheap Android phones. Those people who keep their phones forever, balk at the prices of new iPhones, fully knowing the "nice" ones go for $1000 or more.

I don't think my experience here is atypical. A few years ago, the price of a phone was heavily abstracted by the carriers, but that really is not the case anymore.

Once the subsidies are gone, the main thing is the price of the plan - compared to which a flagship is small.

In many places in Europe, you can get reasonable monthly plans for ~$10; If you only use data, about half that. If you pay $1000 for 6 years of service, it puts the phone price in a completely different perspective than if you pay that for 18 months (which, last I checked US prices, was the case).