Premium products usually cost more to make justifying the price. The point being made is that the cost to manufacture the iphone isn't any more than say an android device, so your just paying apples exclusivity tax.

Because, having used both, there's nothing "premium" about the iPhone experience except the perception in iPhone users' heads.

But that's just it. "Premium" is a subject term. I’ve used both (you mean Android, right? there's other platforms) and found that Android is garbage. So I'm paying good money for a good product. You're free to disagree about the quality but don't tell me I'm brainwashed without offering to pay for a psychiatric evaluation.

I suspect that this is a motte and bailey trick. Users of the iPhone claim that they use a better product, where by better they mean "objectively better", but when challenged on what it is exactly that makes it so much better, retreat to, "Well it's just my preference", and then as soon as the critics say, "That's fine if it's just your preference, but recognize that you're paying a massive tax for what you've admitted is just a subjective preference," they move back to, "Apple makes better products so they make more money." As if it's some kind of objective truth, even though they've admitted that it's not.

"People pay premium for a premium product" doesn't signify to me a subjective difference. Especially when it's used to argue that the premium paid has nothing to do with Apple's branding, an objective and extremely common reason that people pay premium prices for products that are objectively identical to their competitors.