[Someone]

"Is it shocking that $1400 of guaranteed revenue per phone would ultimately be embraced by the carriers regardless of their reluctance about some aspects of the process?"

If you add "in a world where, each month, there are a zillion devices with $1000 guaranteed revenue that, if you are lucky sell well for maybe a month" : yes.

At the extreme, it can be not worthwhile to sell a product with a $1.000.000 guaranteed revenue if, in order to make that sell, you have to instruct personnel at thousands of shops, provide marketing materials for those shops, buy advertising space, etc.

It is not only that $1400 that makes the iPhone attractive, it also is the fact that you just have to put up a hand-written sign "we sell iPhones" to sell them in large quantities, not for a few months, but for over a year, without any changes to the model. That is what surprised many people.