Because Apple has already established a tradition of continuing older generation as their butget lines. People buy new old iPhones all the time. So why not make

Because Apple has already established a tradition of continuing older generation as their butget lines. People buy new old iPhones all the time. So why not make up new new old iPhones? Apparently "this used to be top of the line just n years ago" is part of the appeal and a made up former latest iPhone (like from an alternative history where nine was not skipped) comes much closer to that than a dedicated lesser version of the current generation. And if they get the processing guts of the current generation, just not the novelty gimmicks, they will actually be better than a real former flagship. As an Android user I have nothing but envy for the (occasional) availability of internally updated older chassis. If I had the choice I would probably be writing this on a fourth reissue Moto Defy...