I see that, on 6 pages of comments, just one (1) reader has complained about the poor quality of QLC NAND. I honestly see this with concern, because after several years of usage, when the memory starts to wear and needs to be replaced, I doubt Apple will replace you the SSD on the iPhone. The iPhone will just be “slower” forcing the customers to buy a new one.
I suspect the jump to 128GB of base storage this year comes from a change on the NAND, using cheaper and slower NAND (on some tests, this year’s iPhone SSD is actually slower), which could have worse lifespan.
For those of us who don’t upgrade our smartphone every year, or every other year, this is bad news. QLC NAND is worse in every aspect than TLC, which is actually worse than MLC. But it is cheaper, and Apple has more margin to earn money. Good luck using your $1000+ iPhone for more than 5 years.