Yes, your personal experience is not the same for the average consumer class. Which is the majority of phones & cars are designed for and sold to.

It's actually the same of the average consumer class, people are updating phones less and less, as there's really little reasons to do so. New phones are marginally better, at best, but not in any meaningful way.

Another user posted in above

"As of 2023, the global average replacement cycle length for a smartphone is 3.6 years."

I'm not disagreing on a technical level. I agree. I use a pretty cheap ass phone myself that I bought off the rack.

I think it's clear though that phone makers and telecom companies are more than happy to sell people a new one every few years and intend to continue doing that.