First of all, consumers in Germany SHOULD be paying more "then" they previously were. If a government entity increases a tax on the consumption of a product the people who are consuming the product should pay for it. If your local municipality increased sales taxes by half a percent would you expect all of the vendors who sell that product in your city to lower their prices by half a percent, and just pay the tax themselves?
If Apple were to buy USB flash drives or blank CDs in Germany to use for their business do you think they should insist that he seller of the USB flash drives or CDs should eat the cost of the new German levy?
As an aside, I would not be surprised that, if you were to check you would find that other smartphone sellers in Germany, including Motorola and HTC likely raised their prices to allow for this new tax, also. Greedy bastards! /s
Second, you are absolutely correct about the iPhone in that it should not be "the default choice in smartphones." There should be no "default choice in smartphones." It's a consumer product, and each consumer should make the decision about which product serves their needs. Period.
But the fact is that the marketplace has spoken, and continues to speak. The iPhone is, without any confusion, ambiguity or controversy the number one selling single smartphone in the world. Period. If you don't see the value in it over other phones that's completely your business. Don't buy one. Of course, hundreds of millions of people, including myself disagree with you. I've owned multiple Android devices, and used even more for work. I will say unequivocally that none of them comes close to the quality and usability of the iPhone, for me.