The thing with Samsung is I agree at full price they aren't super attractive, but you normally get good offers pretty quickly, either enhanced trade in prices, cashback, google credit etc. I got a S21 Ultra with a pretty significant reduction in price within a couple of months of launch last year.
Yeah, the top model in the 'S' line is usually the only one worth buying these days.
I used to be a Samsung proponent till the S10, but they started dropping features after that. Now they do not even have proper proximity sensors in some of their S line phones. My S20 FE is horrendous when it comes to taking calls as the virtual proximity sensor doesn't work properly. The screen turns on automatically during calls, leading to the call getting muted accidentally. Turns on in my pocket too, leading to accidental calls.
I also have on old S9, which is waterproof, has a 2k screen, sd card slot, headphone jack and the works. I got it for around 600 at the time, fantastic value for money. Since then, their prices have gradually hiked up to iphone levels for some reason. Samsung, for some reason, are emulating the worst practices from Apple.