[gjm11]

I have an Android phone. I could afford an iPhone, I don't care about folding screens, and my laptop is a MacBook Pro. I have an Android phone (1) because a substantial fraction of what I do on my phone is browsing the web, and Android lets me run Firefox which has markedly better ad-blocking, (2) because the phone I had before this one was an Android phone (mostly for reason 1, as it happens, but that's not particularly important here) and switching is inconvenient, and (3) because one of the reasons why I could easily afford an iPhone if I wanted one is that I have always preferred not to spend money for which I don't get substantial benefit, and it doesn't look to me as if iPhones are so much better than Android phones as to be worth paying a premium for.

This may be partly because I'm not in the US; my impression is that "people who can afford iPhones buy iPhones so if you don't you're impoverished or weird" is much more a thing in the US than in Europe.)

(I also thought "struggling to obtain new market share" was a weird take, and ditto "just look like old and slow phones". I am not disagreeing with that part of what you posted.)