Yeah... My SO is looking to replace her five year old 5S that is finally getting too slow for her to use. I have replaced the battery once at 2.5 year mark (before apple started offering cheap battery replacements), I have also replaced the screen once because she dropped it and shattered the screen.
But now that her 5s is finally slowing down to a crawl she's itching for an upgrade. Understandable, but she's looking at Xs 256GB at $1150 + TAX. I paid less than that for my refurb Dell XPS 13 9370 and my most expensive phone was under $300. She also uses her phone a lot so her battery is guaranteed to die at or before 3 year mark. So assuming she keeps her phone for 3 years until the battery dies she'll be spending $400 a year on a phone. If she decides to replace the battery (at $69) and keep it until it's 5 years old, it's still $260 per year. IMO that's insanity. She also drops her phone all the time so there is also that risk.
I'm hoping to run these numbers by her this weekend to try and convince her to go with basic 64GB Xr, but I fear I may be fighting an uphill battle that may spectacularly backfire. I'll have to tread very very lightly. Sigh, damn you apple, damn you all to hell.