Reasons...

People buy iPhone because they're consistent, polished, and just work. I love my Pixel, but glitches pop up more often than they should for a $1k phone. I don't think I'd ever return to Apple, but sometimes the temptation shows up when they get a feature (admittedly late) but the implementation and function just plain works.
- for a $1k phone
  I'm still surprised people don't just buy the a versions. Nearly all the same features for sub-$500. And the last 2 times (5a and 6a) that they came out, I was offered $150 to trade up. Seeing as one of the ones they accepted for that was destroyed from water damage, it was a good deal. But even full price they're worth it if you like Pixels.
  I checked the comparison for the newest: 7a/7/7Pro https://store.google.com/magazine/comparepixel?hl=en-US and I really see very few differences. 7a even has wireless charging now. It's mostly size I think.
  
  Yeah I think the 'A' versions are quite amazing and really don't get enough credit. For me, the size was the primary factor. I came from a Galaxy Note, so the 7 Pro was just barely smaller. But I liked the idea of a slightly more simplistic interface. Pixel, from a software perspective, felt like the iPhone of androids - it's simple, clean, and should just work. Though I've noticed that my Samsungs with OneUi were more stable with less use errors.
- Also security is better on Apple.
  
  Hahahaha
  Sticking one's head in the sand and pretending security is a non-issue is not actually more secure

Value for money is pretty subjective, but the resale market would disagree.

Reason on the right should 100% be because of iMessage. If it wasn’t for literally everyone in my family being mad at me “breaking” the family texts I’d still have an Android. All too often they’d just text without me which got very sad. Apple has done a great job locking people in with iMessage.
- I take it you're American? European families complain about people not being on WhatsApp
  
  Yep. Irony is I use WhatsApp for work, but I have a lot of international coworkers.
- Sorry to hear that man. But if your family excludes you because you don't have an iPhone/iMessage, maybe you need a new family, not a new phone.
- Honestly I see it as an advantage. If someone will cut someone out of interaction because of the color of a text message bubble then they're probably not a very good person.
- When I chat with most of my friends, it's on Facebook Messenger for that reason. They chat with their families on iMessage.

You can't have an opinion until you have used both.
I used both and I still chose Android... But Android is not as smooth as iOS is, even when messing around with animation speeds.

I see people are still tying their identity to a choice of company over another… that’s sad
- Nah, we're over it, but we also like to laugh at ourselves just to ensure the community doesn't die and also hopefully gets into tomorrow's trending communities.

Don’t get me started on update policies 🫣

Because of group chat. Someone asked this on the Besties (video game podcast) and they literally said anytime an android users joins their chat it causes drama.
Apple could make it so iMessage works across systems. They won't because they like pushing hardware exclusivity. I remember reports from kids in school that were being bullied for having green bubbles and I believe it.
- In the UK iMessage isn't such a big thing. Here it's about WhatsApp. After BBM died, everyone moved to WhatsApp and never looked back
- Peer pressure: always the best reason to do things