I am dealing with headaches on my iPhone 11. Trying to determine if I can find a setting to allow me to keep it, as I have already traded in my second 8+. I traded my first one in for an Xs max at launch. That caused me headaches, so I picked up a red 8+. One of the main reasons I upgraded this time was because 64gb was getting very tight, and the 128gb 11 was perfect. When I picked up my 8+ last year, the only options were 64/256. Now the 8+ is the bottom of the barrel in terms of phones available from Apple, and they offer a 128gb option but NOT 256gb anymore. This is a major shame, because most of us would have probably picked up a 128gb 8+ from the jump and been very happy. They know 128gb is the ideal storage size for most people, so they purposely forced you to upgrade to 256gb when the 8+ was still one of the newer models. It’s not a surprise to anyone that the company that doesn’t even include a headphone dongle or a fast charger (before the pros this year) would try to maximize profits, but I’m still a bit annoyed. Penny pinching to the max!
Apple did this for years. It's called upselling, it's also boosting their ASP (Average Selling Price). They introduced the 64/256 GB option with the iPhone 8 and X in 2017 for the first time, and it made sense for Apple, because the X was the first 999$ iPhone and they just thought that they would sell less units because they were more expensive, so they wanted to increase the ASP of each iPhone. But iPhone X still sold really, really well. iPhone 8 was overshadowed by the X in 2017, and it's just a 7s to be honest and you cannot really justify a 8 or 8 Plus if you already have a 7 or 7 Plus, those phones sold also well in 2016. And the iPhone 8 looks the same (except for the glass back and different colors), and people were hyped for a new design, that they X brought.
Apple never had the right storage size for you for a long time, you were basically forced to pay extra for more storage.
5 and 5s had 16/32/64. iPhone 6? 16/64/128, so Apple said "We increased the capacities, 64 GB is now just 100$ more instead of 200$", but still, you had to pay another 100$. Same with the 6s - 16 GB base model in 2015... so people went with 64 GB and paid that 100$. A year later, Apple has done 32/128/256 for the 7, forcing people to get the 128 GB, because 32 GB isn't enough and you had 64 GB before, with the 6 or 6s. Now you have the 128 GB iPhone 7, another year later: iPhone 8 or X? No more 128 GB, 64 GB or 256 GB it is. Forcing the customer to pay 150$ for 256 GB, but all they want is 128 GB. They just never had the right storage size for you. Either you get the base model and downgrade your storage of what you previously had, or you were forced to pay atleast 100$ more.
It's pretty clever actually, business-wise. Last year they finally stopped that. 64/128/256 on the Xr, same with the 11. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus has now also new options at 64/128 as you already noticed. 256 GB has been removed from both the 8 (Plus), but also the Xr. You want the Xr with 256GB? Nope, you need to buy the 11 instead. Obviously you can still get them third-party but not at Apple directly.
64/256/512 for the Xs and Pro models is still stupid, for that price and for a "Pro" phone it should have been 128/256/512. But i guess most Pro customers went with 256 GB anyways. Going from 64 GB to 128 GB is just 50$ extra, and i recommend that to everyone, but 150$ to jump from 64 GB to 256 GB? It's much and you have to think twice about that. 64 GB and 128 GB that's the sweet spot today, many are fine with the 64 GB base model, and many more want 128 GB. But 256 GB is overkill for most and it sucks when someone wanted to buy a 8 (Plus) or X and 64 GB wasn't enough and again, 150$ extra for the 256 GB that only few people want or need. No 128. It's also 64 GB & 256 GB only for the iPad Air 10.5" and iPad mini 5th gen...
The flash storage chip can be easily changed afterwards, they don't need different iOS IPSWs for every capacity, it's all the same. And i bet it doesn't cost Apple much to use a 256 GB or 128 GB chip instead of 64 GB... but they charge for that. I could go on with their leather cases that are 50$ each and they don't cost much to make, same with the headphone jack dongle that is now no longer included and on and on... especially the Accessories i call overpriced... but that's Apple.
Someone even modded a 7 Plus 32 GB i think it was, and replaced the 32 GB chip with the 512 GB chip that was at the time only to be found in the 2nd gen iPad Pro 10.5". It worked fine, without any issues.