The first iPhone was about $600 which wasn’t that high when you consider the price of an iPod + cell phone combined. And people were regularly buying cellphones and that trend would only ever increase.

As for advertising driving consumerism, that’s undeniable but it’s unclear to me that consumerism is a net positive. We certainly can see all the negative things it creates in society. It also distorts the market in a way that funds are directed to things that may not be as important but has better advertising.