I got a monthly contract plan with Metro and the iPhone 12 was free, the 13 was some small amount, and the 14 another increment. At the time, the big carriers didn't have deals on the iPhone 14's they were pushing.
It's a sign of how little I cared about anything past the iPhone 12 (which added 5G) that I didn't think twice about splurging on the 13 or 14.
I may sound like an old man extolling the virtues of hand-crank windows as "one less thing to break down", but I haven't had any trouble.