Virtually no one outside of tech forums considers years of updates as a factor for which smartphone they pick. Most people, at least in the west, get a new subsidized phone on a contract every couple years. And if anything, they hate updates because stuff they're used to suddenly doesn't work like how they expect any more.

I've never heard anyone in real life say "I bought a Samsung phone last time and it was good but it didn't get any updates after 3 years so I'm never buying one again."

I have no idea how many people consider it, but Samsung made a comitment to offer 4 years of software support, and flagships one year more [1].

Few years ago it was not like that, I don't remember there were official promises and you typically got a year or two of updates. Until recently, long support was always mentioned as a big plus for iPhones.

Now every review I look mentions years of support as a big thing. I also see quite often on forums "I still have year of updates for my device, I'll skip this year's model" so people do think about it.

It's possible only techies look at these things (and read reviews and online discussions), but even so it's still better than it was.

[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_year...

↑ This. I got a Nokia Android One phone for this reason. I need security updates since I do banking and credit card transactions on my phone