I think it's mostly marketing. When all phones are identical glass rectangles, the only meaningful way to distinguish your product is by being the biggest, thin

I think it's mostly marketing. When all phones are identical glass rectangles, the only meaningful way to distinguish your product is by being the biggest, thinnest, highest IP-rating. Most of these metrics are entirely orthogonal to what any real person wants from a phone, but that's an irrelevant detail to marketing types