That’s the problem and beauty of iPhone. They create a good product but it’s not always enough to need or want to upgrade each year.
It's not a
problem, I'd argue you're looking at it wrong. They come out with more revolutionary upgrades every 3-5 years or so (like the 6/7/8 to X transition). In between, they have two choices: make
evolutionary incremental changes every year, to update to newer technology, or have the phone sit stagnant for 3-5 years until the next revolutionary model comes out. Aside from this causing huge sales right after a new model and then a sales drought for 3+ years, in the latter scenario, it means that if you're not in lockstep with that exact upgrade cycle, you're "forced" to buy substantially older tech - say your phone is destroyed 4½ years into a 5 year upgrade cycle - your only recourse (staying in the iPhone ecosystem) would be to buy a 4½ year old phone, with what is at that point, quite aged tech, instead of (in the current scenario) a six month old phone.
It's better to let the revolutionary changes come when they're ready, but offer a steady stream of incremental updates each year, so whenever someone buys a new phone, it's reasonably up to date with the latest tech. You're really not meant to upgrade
every year (would you upgrade your house or car every year?). That's wasteful, and just leads to a lot of unnecessary outrage about "this year's model offers me
nothing over last year's model!!1!" (no, actually, it offers a faster processor, better cameras, and a variety of other upgrades over last year's model). Keep your current iPhone until it breaks, or runs too slowly for apps you use, or the new one offers a feature you really want/need. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 16 Pro, from an iPhone 8, and the differences are astounding.