The good

• These phones still have some of the best screens you can buy—even the non-Pro iPhone hits it out of the park
• They have by far the best smartphone performance, too
• Solid gains in GPU performance
• Camera Control brings the long-awaited physical shutter button
• The customizable Action button makes its way to the base iPhone
• New photographic styles allow you to move away from the pitfalls of Apple's computational photography decisions in any direction you choose
• High-end camera features previously reserved for more expensive models have trickled down
• Ultra-wide photos in low light got quite a bit better
• Battery life improvements are always welcome

The bad

• 60 Hz on the non-Pro phones is looking a bit long in the tooth
• Likewise, always-on displays are now standard in some of the iPhone 16's direct competitors
• The Pro phones don't offer enough to justify an upgrade over the base models for the majority of consumers
• Possibly the most subtle year-over-year upgrades in iPhone history—if that's really a bad thing

The ugly

• Not much, other than the steep prices

I think the point about the 3 year upgrade cycle being optimal unless you are a real enthusiast is right on the money. I’d say I’m moderately interested in tech improvements in this space and it seems ideal for me as I will be considering an upgrade from an iPhone 13 Pro (likely informed by how gimmicky or actually useful the Apple Intelligence stuff becomes and if I can offload my ChatGPT Pro subscription). If you’re really not a huge phone tech person or looking for the best camera quality then every 4 years is probably completely reasonable as well. At that point, the battery life is probably starting to suffer as well..