As others have said, there's also a question of practicality. My iPhone 7 is slippery as hell. Even if money were no object and I had a stack of 100 spare ones

As others have said, there's also a question of practicality. My iPhone 7 is slippery as hell. Even if money were no object and I had a stack of 100 spare ones, I would still absolutely hate for it to break when I'm randomly out and about just because it slipped from my hand. Even just taking 30 minutes or however long to move everything to a new one would be a nuisance, let alone having to go to the apple store or wait for a delivery. I just want my phone to get out of my way. I don't use it often, but when I do, I want it to work right then and there. Taking the 10 seconds to install a non-slippery cover helps tremendously with that. I think there is a definite difference between babying something and being absolutely reckless with it. It may also depend on the device. My galaxy s5 wouldn't slip from my hands, so I didn't bother with a cover. I would also buy an iphone "rugged" instead of a "slim" if it were an option.