From my world experience, this is a pure Americanism. And Americans broadly seem to care a more about status than the other 95% of the worlds population.

go to latin america. I bought a phone for a girl awhile back while I was there. she literally chose a used 3 year old iphone over a brand new android that costs more. I even showed her that the secs on the android were objectively better.

"Quierro un iphone!!"

its definitely not an american only thing

I don’t think I would ever use an Android phone again, I used one very early one and then stopped around the Pixel.

For me, an iPhone is better than any Android phone. I don’t know why this is surprising to many people.

It's more of a filter for a certain mindset even if some cannot articulate it:

iPhone -> pragmatism