You shouldn’t be, and no — that’s not stupid at all.
People are different. Not everyone optimizes for specs, benchmarks, or what’s “objectively” the most rational choice on paper. A lot of purchasing decisions are emotional, symbolic, or tied to very specific personal priorities.
A few of my friends’ parents (70–80+) buy Pro Max phones when a standard model would easily meet their needs — and they even go for the larger storage options. Why? Because the camera matters enormously to them. Taking photos of their grandchildren is the single most important use case. For some others, it’s also about status — they want the best of the best, regardless of whether they’ll use all of it - period!
For some people, it’s not even that deep. It’s the color. Bright orange phones weren’t really a thing until the 17 Pro — now they are, and that alone is a deciding factor for some buyers.
Apple understands this extremely well. They think in terms of user variety, not a single “ideal” customer. They cover multiple motivations — utility, emotion, aspiration, status — and they do it across the entire lineup. That’s how they stay relevant, grow revenue, and keep investing in the next generation of products.
Not every choice has to be “optimal” to be valid. It just has to make sense to the person buying it.
