It all depends in your position on software patents and design. If you live in the US they are the law of the land.
Our company, for example, cannot sell our product in the US because we would most certainly violate a software patent from a US company regarding trading ladders.
If you are offended by the word steal then clearly you don't know much about common usage in the english language, nor can you empathize with Apple's position. Stealing in this case means, "taking sales from." This is common usage of the term. Apple's position appears to be that Android and Samsung have had almost no original thought in their product. Just look at Android SDK around 2007. Then look at the post iPhone releases. Look at the phones from major manufacturers in 2007 and then again in the post-iPhone market. If you can't see that Apple changed the competitive landscape then I guess there isn't much more to discuss.
When you've done that look at Windows Phone 7. There are original ideas and a new approaches to that design. I would be surprised to see Apple ever pursue WP7's design legally.
While I can't speak to your personal finances, iPhone can cost as little as a dollar in some markets with certain carriers. If that isn't affordable, what is?