Thanks for taking my word soup and putting into a way more concise comment.

I loved Nexus (and the Pixel 1) because I'm getting them straight from Google without contract to my wireless provider and without their additional bloat software. I like getting updates direct from the source in a timely manner and I figure they want their brand on quality product.

At this point it feels like they're using their brand to justify overcharging on something which is hardly better than a lot of the market competition. Its a fine proposition if they're the clear winner in all things Android but they really aren't anymore, why keep pretending and just go back to that niche of: Quality, Simple, Affordable?

But don't they have that covered? The 4a looks pretty good.

I'm not particularly concerned about the Pixel 5's price since I assume there will be a 5a next year. People who care about 5G might buy it, but you don't have to.

This isn't a flagship cost. It is $700 for the Pixel 5 vs. $1,000+ for an iPhone.

The fairly equivalent iPhone 11 is $799. That does look like flagship cost ballpark to me

But the iPhone 11 isn't flagship, it's mid-tier.

Apparently it's also without a headphone port, which is a deal breaker for me.

While I agree, you should definitely grab yourself a set of Jabra 65-85t bluetooth headphones and transition to the future :)