Well I get your point but there isn’t much to be offered hardware wise to make a new phone each year and they need arguments for new phones. Apple is a publicly traded company and with its high value it has to make bigger earnings every year. So if there is a way they get away with this they will do it.

Even though you can’t compare it perfectly they probably looking at google who seem to get away with only offering their advanced ai features on the new flagship phone even though the standard variant has comparable and so capable hardware for the job.