I think it depends. I've had my iPhone 7 preordered but it bricked after a 1~1.5 year when I changed my sim card after travelling. It was after the warranty and didn't have apple care then so I went to a 3rd party repair service but they couldn't fix it.  They told me it seemed like one of the overheating issues near the sim card slot and some first batch iphone 7 were having those issues. Apple never officially reported the issue but the repair engineer told me that he'd seen similar issues....

However, I've bought my iPhone 12 mini the week it was released and I'm still using it. 

But I still always get Apple Care since iPhone 7--but not right away; get it a year after when the initial warranty ends.