First, when pricing phones and doing comparisons -- include the total cost of ownership of each of those models. People often get hung up on a device costing $100 or $200 more as being 15% to 25% more. I am use to not having a plan in the country I am living in (and total cost is considerably less than my home country of Canada). Phones should typically last 4 years (even sell the phone and get a new one; or recycle it through the family) with being reasonably useful - so that is typically what I use for total cost. In Canada where the market is very costly this could mean over those 4 years you are spending $4,000 on a plan for that phone.... so if a phone costs $600 - your total cost of ownership is $4,600, or more. So in the end being cheap about the actual device is not saving a whole lot of money.
Most people usually have a strong preference (Android or iPhone) -- my case I prefer my iPhone. If you are an Android user I would probably give preference to a Pixel phone just because a lot of vendors are slow (at most) on updating the phone with the new version or security updates.
At this point you have probably narrowed down your choice - and you probably know what you use your phone for. If you use your phone alot and it is a very important device, just chose the best phone that you can buy at the time that suits your needs.
All sales people have their own preferences and unfortunately most are swayed by choices other than what the consumer is actually telling them (be it higher commission for a given supplier, or their own device preferences). If they sound like they are not making sense -- it is probably because they are not thinking of what your needs are.