I have been using Nexus phones for about the last 5 years now, and I would say that a iPhone is clearly a better piece of hardware than a $100-200 Android phone

I have been using Nexus phones for about the last 5 years now, and I would say that a iPhone is clearly a better piece of hardware than a $100-200 Android phone. But for the top tier Android phones I'd agree that the reasons for paying the Apple premium are dwindling. Looking at something like the Essential phone that's retailing for $500, I think the many users would be hard-pressed to find an extra $500 of value out of the iPhone X. Then you look at a Pixel 2 XL, that's about $200 cheaper than the iPhone X while still featuring a very high level of fit, finish, and performance, and it gets to be a good deal harder to make the case for the iPhone X. Android and particularly vanilla Android have really closed the gap on iOS while Apple has gone a bit backwards in some respects.