This is technically true, but I think you're exaggerating the effects of some of the choices vs others. For example, the difference in camera quality between t

This is technically true, but I think you're exaggerating the effects of some of the choices vs others. For example, the difference in camera quality between the iPhone 6 and 6+ is minimal. Yes, if you are obsessed with 'the best' camera quality but want it in a smaller phone, you are faced with a compromise, but for almost everyone the phone size massively overshadows the trivial difference in camera. So people will pick the size they want and those who pick the bigger device will have the minor bonus of a marginally better camera. Almost nobody obsesses over the full matrix of possible tradeoff the way you are implying. They just choose from what is available based on what is most important to them. The iPhone lineup is easy to select from based on this approach. Yes, they could make things more orthogonal by say, not having the plastic phone, but it seems to me that this would have almost no effect of the ease of choosing, while just serving fewer customers.