Marketing. Convince a bunch of fools that they need a fancy phone with fancy features that are "unique", and they'll lap it up. That's the only way Apple has market share; they have to convince people that their stuff is better than the other guys'.
It's kinda a problem with the entire smartphone industry, actually. Last time I checked, people talk shit about Qualcomm (one of many manufacturers of Android phone processors) for having the slower processor compared to Apple's, but we're literally at a stage where none of that shit matters anymore. Like, who the hell cares? Both can do 60+ FPS in any game you can throw at it, and considering that all phones run in always-on VSync, it's not like it matters if you can get more than that.
Tell me, what percent of people who buy the latest and greatest S30+ Ultra or iPhone 14 Pro Max++ actually use their CPUs (to be pedantic: SoC, not CPU) to the max anyway? I've not noticed much of a difference between my current $150 phone and a $500 one. I'm not kidding. Everything's already optimized for the lowest common denominator, because optimizing for those also ends up optimizing for battery life. Maybe gaming, but it's a moot point when literally everyone wants the best one despite not having any intentions of running games on the things anyway.
The things people do on phones do not warrant a top-of-the-line CPU anymore. Maybe a nice (set of) camera(s) and a nice OLED display, but CPU has long since stopped mattering on the high-end, the $500+ range. Not even the mid-range, and I think the low-end side of the market's catching up. Literally anything released recently with 4 GB of RAM is already good enough as far as I'm concerned, though the cameras aren't the greatest if you're going for lowest price. Aim higher if you care about that, and do your research.