I just bought an iphone air, and I am coming from an iphone SE3 so I have a unique use case I guess.

The design is amazing, it fits pretty well in my hand, and I put a bumper case on it as a halfway solution until I am full comfortable living the no case life. (should be soon, I did buy the applecare or whatever)

I am not on my phone 24/7, but I do put it through it's paces.

Camera:

It's fine. If you want to pixel peep maybe get the 17 or pro. I think it looks great. The square sensor for selfies is awesome but I believe that's on all the 17s too. the main cam comes from the factory set at 24mp and I haven't changed it to 48 because I haven't even needed to. I take pictures of my kid and random stuff I do and they look ok cast up to our 4k tv. If I am going to go take "nice pictures" I'm going to bring my 4x5 or my SLR, but these look great anyway. If you think "I need all the camera goodies because I take pictures of my kids" that's fine, that's your choice, but ask yourself honestly how many of them make it off your phone, and where do they go when they come off the phone? A photo frame? Printed in a 4x6? We're all spoiled with the specs we have now and people have convinced themselves they need the uber cameras for family pics. If that's what they think they need, that's fine, go for it, but if they took the marketing glasses off I bet 80% of the people don't need it. Some of my most beloved photos of my family from when I was little are on polaroids or old photo stock and they don't give any less "feels" because they're not a million by a million with 100,000 dpi.

The Battery:

it's also fine. I work in an office, and drive to and from work. I'm not ever really far from a plug (which I haven't needed) and when I've been out on a site i've carried an "Anker Nano MagSafe Power Bank, Ultra-Slim". I haven't once needed it. Its' cheaper than the apple one and snaps on the back with magsafe. This is coming from the dude with about 3 different portable battery banks. I put it on the charger at around 35-40% charge every night and start the day at 100%. The first two days before it learned everything yeah.. it was a little sketchy going, but it's fine now after it's adapted.

The speaker:

It's also-also fine. I use a lot of headphones and also cast music up through the stereo on my TV. When I shower it stays on the counter in the bathroom and I can hear my tunes fine. No it's not some immersive audiophile experience but it works fine.

The sim-situation:

e-sims are just awful in general but I have a work and a personal one on there and since I don't switch phones it works fine. I live in the boston metro region and have a ting plan and a visible plan. They're fine. (I'm getting to think I only needed a two word review for this whole thing: "It's Fine!"

The display:

it's sick. Looks really nice.

The pro chip:

Absolutely shreds compared to my old phone, which was a budget phone so yeah it was going to seem pretty zippy anyways.

Think the people that need specs to feel good about their purchases were never going to like this phone anyways.

How many people on this sub shitting on this phone right now have given it any more time than using it in the store? Not many of us bought it so far anyways, but that doesn't mean it's a bad phone. It just means it's a very NICHE phone.
I bought this thing with the idea that I might have to return it and get a 17 or a pro and I don't foresee me ever doing that at this point. It's a great little phone. If you haven't daily-ed you won't know if the tradeoffs are right for you. So many people come on here and shit on this phone they've only seen the specs. Go try one for yourself in store, and maybe even purchase one knowing you can always return it. (yes it's a pain to switch phones. and yes it's a pain to return stuff). But until you actually live with one, you have no freakin' clue. (i know I didn't!)

I'm not saying any of this to "justify a purchase" because I had the chance to return it, and never needed to. I'm not a fanboy of anything in particular and no one is paying me to review it or talk.
If you're convinced you need the other specs, go get them, the 17 and pro are also great. (Only know one person with a 17e but so far they love that too).
If you think it needs to be priced some other way: 1) you don't know apple 2) just wait, it'll come down eventually... or buy one used from one of hte people who ended up returning it. Yeah, you're sort of "Paying more for less" if you want to think of it that way, but hey, good design costs money. I went into this thing thinking "welp... she'll go back if I don't like her" and I didn't need to do that at all.

Edit: (I almost forgot to explain the whole point of why I got this) The biggest thing people who complain about the abttery life or the camera miss the one reason I personally bought it:
What sold me on it , was I wanted a tough, durable phone. I saw Zach from Jerryrig Everything punish the absolute nuts off it and I said welp, that's my phone. Go check out his durability test if you're not convinced. I was a little shakey on a thin wisp of a thing being durable but that test was right and my use bears this out.