Games are dramatically bigger in scale and graphics quality.

I can now do on-device transcription without issue, security improvements at the chip level, HD graphics for video streaming, etc.

Right, but you choose when to play the games right ?

You can't choose when to use your OS, and you need to 'update your os' to stay secure.

if I want to play games, I will buy the latest iPhone. If I want to a smartphone with couple simple primitive apps that just send JSON and call REST APIs in the cloud, I don’t want to be forced to shell out $1500 every couple years