You are being selective in your reasoning. I would say the previous few years have all been dramatically overpriced. I purchased an iphone 5 outright from apple on release for $730 or so and for the past few years the non plus has been over $1000. Don't even bother looking at the price of the plus.
To me, no phone is worth $1000 or well above that mark. And it boggles my mind how other people (particularly low income earners) are able to be walking around with the latest and greatest from apple.
Value is obviously in the eye of the beholder.