If consumers make their choices according to features like this - then the competition is real and the innovation must happen, otherwise the company is left beh

If consumers make their choices according to features like this - then the competition is real and the innovation must happen, otherwise the company is left behind. Exactly as you say: "they are just creating an update treadmill for a product that proxies as a social status symbol" - that is exactly what's happening. Not just "full-time designers need to be designing something", as grandparent put it. Companies live or die by these developments.