Say you buy a $1000 phone, and the screen cracks in like 2 months. What do you do? Will you happily pay around a third of the phone price just to get the screen repaired from their official service center? A part of the reason the repair price is so extremely high is because the repair is not easy (even if the display does not cost as much). The disassembly of the phone requires specialized tools (and knowledge) which are not as easily accessible to the average person.
Replacing the battery is even harder. Phones these days have software support for up to 7 years, but the battery degrades a lot in 3. So, you are now left with a capable device that drains extremely fast.
Also, a lot of us want phones with long (preferably upstream) software support and are privacy enthusiasts. And I have seen no phone which matches the desired criteria for under $200. You need to dish out around $500 (e.g. Pixel 10a) to get such a device new (obviously cheaper if you buy it second hand).
Say you buy a $1000 phone, and the screen cracks in like 2 months. What do you do? Will you happily pay around a third of the phone price just to get the screen repaired from their official service center? A part of the reason the repair price is so extremely high is because the repair is not easy (even if the display does not cost as much). The disassembly of the phone requires specialized tools (and knowledge) which are not as easily accessible to the average person.
Replacing the battery is even harder. Phones these days have software support for up to 7 years, but the battery degrades a lot in 3. So, you are now left with a capable device that drains extremely fast.
Also, a lot of us want phones with long (preferably upstream) software support and are privacy enthusiasts. And I have seen no phone which matches the desired criteria for under $200. You need to dish out around $500 (e.g. Pixel 10a) to get such a device new (obviously cheaper if you buy it second hand).