My current phone cost half as much and is by far the best-performing smartphone I've ever owned.
No, I don't get why I'm supposed to pay double for iOS. Then again I don't see any smartphone on the market that I'd actually pay a premium price for. They're all not quite convincing to me.
Also, $399 is not entry level compared to the first generations of the iPhone, which was already not considered cheap. I'm not a fan of this severe price drift.