"Industry leading" could encompass many things. Let's take software support for example:
- Timely security updates
- Timely OS/feature updates (for the entire life-cycle of the phone)
- Overall length of that life-cycle (six year precedent set by Apple for the 5s)
If you care about those things, then I think iPhones are indisputably "industry leading". Ongoing software support is always the elephant in the room when it comes to Android. If reviewers and users actually gave that aspect of phones the appropriate weight, then iPhones would look a lot more competitive. You could almost view it as a false-equivalency issue. Reviewers compare day-one Android phones to day-one iPhones, rarely mention the update issue. Updates are not glamorous and exciting to users. No one seems to be able to see past the fancy cameras, into the cesspool of woefully insecure, abandoned Android phones.
This is from someone who generally dislikes Apple and most aspects of iOS, and has current threads criticizing Apple's latest camera, but credit where credit's due.
Also, last time I looked, Apple's mobile SoCs are also industry leading in terms of performance.