If you can't afford luxury things, then don't buy luxury things; if you can, then fine. Besides for the stuff you're really into (your hobby or whatever), you can get a quality product if you just go 1 or 2 tiers up from bottom tier and chances are you won't even notice or care about the difference because it's not something you really care about to begin with. Like why buy some expensive wireless earbuds if you aren't an audiophile? For hobby stuff that's important to you, you can spend for the better stuff.
So many people I know, most of their problems are mainly their own fault. This one guy that used to work with me said he was really good with money (put money away and whatnot) when I first got hired and in about a week, I knew he was shit with money. He bought some Alienware laptop that he said was a good deal but wasn't at all because it's an Alienware laptop and we're both IT people, you don't buy Alienware if you're a tech person (it's like common sense). Then, he bought a new car and new cars are total wastes of money. And shocker, he had to move back in with his parents, but he's just so good with money... Another friend I haven't mentioned yet has worked at Subway for probably 20 years now and just recently got health insurance and it's his own fault for staying there this whole time, he could've easily got a better job and then he posts about how everything is stacked against people, it's all the system's fault, etc when he could've improved his situation himself. Sure the system isn't great by any means, but you do have the ability to improve your situation yourself (not as much as you'd like or what it should be, but you can). Also, he just recently got an $800 phone.
Why are you buying a $500,000 house? The phone question was leading into that stat of people not having $400 for some emergency expense, not saving up for a house. If you just get a normal phone and normal plan, you'd have that $400 in a few months. And then if you used the same logic for other things that you buy, you'd have a lot more money obviously (to save up for bigger expenses). I, for example, have a monthly phone cost of $20/month; I have the $15/month T-Mobile pre-paid service and my phone is a Moto G8 Power that retailed for $180 in 2020 when I bought it so that's $5/month if I use the phone for 3 years and I've already had it for 2 years and it's still doing really good on battery life (I only charge twice a week). The average person's phone cost is a microcosm for how poor they are with managing money.