I've been in telecom for most of my career, often dealing with apps and test phones so I've run the gamut of the cheapest to the greatest most expensive phones as test devices and personal devices over the course of the last couple of decades.
Simple advice that people who need it don't want to hear: for years now it's been possible to get a really, really usable phone for $30 (used to be $20). I'm not talking about a flip phone, I mean somehting running a reasinable enough android version with reasonable enough specs to run whatever bullshit apps you think you need and be a functional part of society with for as much as a phone with internet access and a camera to read QR codes seems to be increasingly required.
There is zero reason to spend more without 1.) the means to do so and 2.) a good reason why that basic phone won't do what you need it to. If 1.) is big enough you get to just buy shit you don't need because you want to. That's how this has always worked. But increasingly it's people without enough money buying much too expensive phones that have capabilities they will never use and financing them to boot.