Why do we live in a place where you need to buy a new phone yearly?!

We don’t… Maybe stop falling victim to FOMO and needing the newest thing that isn’t much better than what you already have?

This is more an issue of your own mindset (and somewhat of a common one with Apple users in general in my experience) than with the tech. I’ve had 4 smartphones since smartphones were a thing, and I do have a desire to have the fastest, most powerful hardware. There just isn’t enough difference in hardware to justify upgrading every time something new comes out, so I only actually get something new when my old thing literally stops functioning.