It's literally $0.99/month in the US for the cheapest iCloud+ plan. That's not much of a status symbol.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108047

Status symbol? Here's my take on it - iPhone is dozen a dime here in my country now (3rd world) but iCloud, iMessage are not. iCloud+ is definitely not. People are used to WhatsApp here (just to take an example of messaging apps) and even if they ever stumble upon iMessage they immediately see what a decidedly inferior and opaque oddity that thing is.