I'd say imessage (and facetime) is about half of why I use an iphone in the end. It's just very good at communicating with my social network, which predominately uses iphones.
As someone in the US, it's totally irrelevant. I never use Facetime and Imessage vs. SMS is a just don't care. If I occasionally communicate internationally, it's via Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger.
It kind of sounds like you’re saying “as a representative sample of people in the US”. If this is the case you are wrong — plenty of people use these services.
If you’re just saying “you” then sure whatever, I put salsa on my toast.
Do you ever video chat with friends or family? In my experience this is almost entirely over FaceTime, though zoom had its moment there during the lockdown.
