Well of course they'd see the difference, but that's not the same as the difference being meaningful to them (which, for the aforementioned mega boomer who only makes calls, it might not be). Such a person certainly wouldn't notice the increased refresh rate lol

As for your main point, I'm not sure I see the relevance? The vast majority of people don't upgrade their phone every year, and most who do are enthusiasts who care about the lil differences, or very wealthy people who don't care about the money and just automatically get the newest one when it comes out because why not.

Well yeah but that doesn't invalidate their meaning to at least some users.

To a boomer who barely uses their phone and only uses it for calls when they do use it, there might be no meaningful difference between an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 14 Pro Max, but that doesn't mean the phones aren't hugely different.

Meanwhile, to a tech nerd who constantly uses their phone to its fullest extent, the differences each year in camera quality, battery life, screen quality (notch size, brightness, etc), processing power, miscellaneous new features, etc are certainly meaningful upgrades.

Like sure, the generalized experience for most people from one year to the next ain't gonna be much different, but that doesn't justify calling it the "same phone every year."

It's not the same phone though. There are consistent, meaningful changes year-over-year within product lines.