It’s not a scam, the spec sheets for each model of their phones are available online. It’s certainly an expensive phone, but the value holds decently for a few years anyways.
Apple doesn’t hide that they want to push the “Pro” line and are comfortable not giving too much “new” to the non-Pro models. The iPhone keynote is even split where one is for the lower models and another is for the Pro.
It's a scam when they're chargin 1 grand for a phone lacking a basic feature that's bee on Androids for 10 years already and that's only in their even more expensive phones.
Apple doesn’t hide that they want to push the “Pro” line and are comfortable not giving too much “new” to the non-Pro models. The iPhone keynote is even split where one is for the lower models and another is for the Pro.