On one hand Apple needed to do something to properly differentiate its Pro models more. Lets be honest, despite minutae details between them all you're really getting in the 13 Pro is a telephoto lens and a 120hz screen, the same as the 12 Pro. These were nice-to-haves but ultimately for the majority of people not worth the upgrade.

What we have now is an actual benchmark between the 2 as well as some clever hardware features. The 14 hard sell is as an upgrade simply because it and the 13 don't really do anything of note to make them worth the extra $$$ over the 12.

On the other hand they really should have not bothered with the 14 branding and stuck a 13S on the regular one and then ditched the ridiculous Pro moniker and just had the 13S and the 14, ie a slight improvement and the new model. They could have then continued this branding going forwards, although I imagine we will get the 12 design on at least the iPhone 15 whilst they put USBC in the 15 Pro and maybe upgrade the Ultrawide to 48mpx and call it a day for another year.