Buying a $600+ phone is a little crazy. It shouldn't be a commonplace thing. I don't want a phone I will regret landing on top of while skiing or biking or just bumping into things. It's a triumph of marketing but it makes little sense when you can get, e.g., a new moto E with LTE for $150. That's what a good smartphone, with no glaring deficiencies, should cost.
$600+ for a tablet that you keep protected in your bag is a whole other thing.
This is exactly how I roll. I will never pay more than $200 for a phone and I will never, every pay more than $200 for a tablet or any computing device that comes with a walled garden OS.
I did pay over $1,000 for a Surface Pro and I will do it again when the 4th version comes out because that's a fully capable general purpose computer that I use as a portable workstation and/or gaming rig. I paid $350 for a Dell Venue 8 Pro because it's got full Windows 8, it fits in my pocket and the battery lasts 13 hours. I can easily install Chrome with Adblock on these tablets and it's faster and easier to setup than any Android or Apple device that I've ever used because I've got way more control.
I even upgraded that little 8" tablet to Windows 8 Pro for another $100 so I could add it to my company's domain and walk around accessing every single company resource that I need with the same native apps that I use at my desk.
$600+ for a tablet that you keep protected in your bag is a whole other thing.