I don't feel it's absurd.
For every product in the market there is a luxury version for people who's insensitive to price (hello LVHM!)... except for phones.
If you have all the money in the world the most expensive / exclusive phone you can get is an iPhone, Samsung Fold, or this Pixel Fold.
>“Vertu has changed hands lots of over the past decade, but is still being run by a bunch of folks based out of Hong Kong, very close to the Chinese supply chain,” says Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research. “These folks with renewed focus are rebadging existing models from brands—ZTE, for example—with luxury materials and advanced hardware and software.”
As I understand it, the phone is just the thing you plonk down on the table that says "I'm megarich". The true functionality is in the service, imagine having a voice assistant that can do anything - we're closer to that than ever before with AI but Vertu users have had it for years using real humans.
I met a guy once who got sent to Dubai for a week and his only job was to visit all the places a wealthy person might want to go to, while carrying a Vertu phone in his bag. They wanted to check signal strength.
Just because you are wealthy, does not mean you want to be inconvenienced. Especially to the degree that not using a modern iOS/Android device would inconvenience you.
There’s a million ways to show off you are rich that would not result in you wasting your time.
If you have all the money in the world the most expensive / exclusive phone you can get is an iPhone, Samsung Fold, or this Pixel Fold.