what you're really paying for is a difference in manufacturing; the spec bump is just to make the very high price hurt less. $2k instead of $800. they designed

what you're really paying for is a difference in manufacturing; the spec bump is just to make the very high price hurt less. $2k instead of $800. they designed an elaborate process which theoretically guarantees that your phone was not tampered with at the factory or in transport. it was sort of a reaction to Bloomberg's "The Big Hack" article, which claimed Apple devices were compromised en masse at the factory in China by state actors (and the story was later retracted due to lack of evidence). i do think it's a cool effort, even if the threat is only hypothetical. but it's a lot to pay unless you're operating under an extreme threat model.