Maybe the marketing and “coolness” is what initially attracts them but once they try it they stay because of the user experience.
I had a non-technical friend with an Android phone (full of malware btw). She didn’t care about Apple, never used any of their products nor need it for the “social status” or anything (her friends are all on WhatsApp so no issues with iMessage). I gave her an old iPhone 7 to try out, a couple weeks later she would never consider going back to Android ever.
It was a mid-range Samsung probably a year old. The problem wasn’t really the hardware but the fact that it was full of malware and crap apps, which is what you’d expect with a non-technical user. iOS mostly avoids that problem thanks to sandboxing.
I had a non-technical friend with an Android phone (full of malware btw). She didn’t care about Apple, never used any of their products nor need it for the “social status” or anything (her friends are all on WhatsApp so no issues with iMessage). I gave her an old iPhone 7 to try out, a couple weeks later she would never consider going back to Android ever.