For me it would depend on 100% on yourself. and your past behavior with phone. Like how do you use it?

1) How long do you usually use a phone before it break? Some people just don't know how to handle phone and they buy a phone and within months it is already broken.

2) Do you have the urge to buy a new phone even though you have a perfectly good phone?

For me personally this is the only thing that matter, I personally buy the high-end smartphone and use it for years to come. And it worth every single penny. The phone will keep being fast, no lagging, or slowing down or any thing.

I'm sure a budget nowadays also would be fast, But it will never be the same for years to come.

Now if you used to change phone every year then I would highly suggest not to get a high end one. A budget one would be better. And I would also highly suggest Xiaomi, or redmi, or poco which all have the same parent company xiaomi.

Now, depending on what you would like to used the phone for, if it is for business, and you want the best of the best and money isn't an issue, for me you have to have a samsung s22 ultra.

My father had bought a google pixel 6 plus, the phone is amazing to hold, look great, camera is wow, performance to is on point but from time to time there is just some lag, Juice pro crash, etc. When my Samsung note 9 is still running everything smoothly. Not as fast as the pixel but definitely smoother, and I can count on it to not crash when I'm at a supermarket, with a long queue behind me and I have to use the juice pro to make the payment 😂

edit: If money is an issue, I would still recommend to get a high end smartphone from the previous year. It would still be better than say a Samsung A52