Sure it does. The amount of storage/RAM when you buy your phone depends on the price. But also the lifetime of a device is longer if the replacement is more expensive. And those older devices have even less storage/ram.
And it affects the amount in the cloud, so higher chance of users retaining more pic/vid data on their devices
Also the number of apps a user has increases, and if every one of those wastes hundreds of megs it accumulates.
I'd say sacrifices need to be made. If one wants apps with reasonably modern capabilities, then one has to invest in a device that can handle such capabilities. And those devices come with ample storage. Like I had the OnePlus One and 2, which came with 64GB, and then the 6 which came with 128GB I think. Currently I have the 12, with 512GB. At no time have I ever ran out of space, and I always have a crazy number of apps installed along with media; what has happened though is a device can't handle some apps (particularly games) well, or performance generally falls over time, or other hardware starts to give out (both the camera and buttons died on the 6, which is when I bought the 12).
All the "modern capabilities" are available to more efficient toolchains, so that doesn't explain any need to sacrifice. And if you don't personally experience storage issues, talk to other people who do.
