Jesus lads relax.
I am neither rich nor pompous, my last few phones were work owned, I drive a non new car and really don't mind Apple iPhones as smartphones, in fact I have a 5s sat in the car which will prob do me until Feb when Samsung release info on new models given my note7 is going to explode any second now.
It is not elitist nor pompous to say that a lot of people that struggle to feed their kids still find enough money to have top end phones on contracts that are entirely overdone with regards to what they actually need. Fur coat no knickers relates to that demographic. Many many people can afford them etc my point was that finance for a mobile phone is crazy but accepted these days.
Mobile phones components are developed by many outsourced companies so their R&D is built into their prices so the likes of Apple, Samsung, Motorola etc who do have massive research costs, when you divide it per handset it really isn't hundreds per device.
In work, I maintain approx 40 handsets which are predominantly iPhones and a handful of others. Between each renewal period I see a wide range of problems from screen faults, speaker and microphones failing, home buttons becoming insensitive and iOS updates causing freezing and general slowness. My note 4 had a crazy blue pixel (might have been a couple) it rebooted itself maybe twice in its two years of use. The other Android users never reported any issues but those guys would have been a little more independent to fix their own problems. Many on the iPhones struggle to make 2 years between being bent, batteries shot and general screen discoloration, My note 4 was in good condition so passed it onto my eldest daughter who canes the life out of it with YouTube and Pokemon, only a handful of the iPhones were in any sort of condition to pass onto staff. Let's agree that iPhones are not perfect nor are any other smartphone brand, when it comes to the premium phones, none are a better product, just different.