Re: "There haven't been many earth-shattering breakthroughs over the past five years."
I don't think the innovations have been very important, but until 2015 or so, you could at least notice them. The new phone would have a better screen than the last one, would load apps faster, maybe last a bit longer on battery*. The same being true of communications--data over 2G was nearly unusable, 3G was good, 4G was great. Now, although processors in phones get faster and faster, I don't really see any effects on my general usage. I'm sure some people use more processing and have noticed the changes, but I doubt it's their major consideration. A logical response from the manufacturers would be to try to experiment with new things or to compete on price. They've made a couple attempts at the former, but their treatment of the latter is strange and doesn't seem to be helping them all that much.
*New phones running for longer on a battery: I am only comparing like for like here. I know that non-smartphones ran for longer, and that a new phone with a larger screen will run shorter. For a while, phones using new chips and the same quality screen would improve their battery life. Now, every saving in battery is used to allow an even bigger or higher resolution screen.