I think you are right...the price of these phones has been artificially raised by the subsidies. I bought my latest phone direct from Motorola a was as to get option I never got from Verizon. And the price e was quite reasonable.
I bought a Motorola (Moto E)smartphone/Tracfone package via QVC for $99.
It is 3G, but my area doesn’t have 4G, with triple minutes and an initial bundle of 1200 minutes (talk, text, data, and 1 year of service). I do not use anywhere near that much time via smartphone for talk + text + data.
Not bad for about $8/month. My old, now disconnected, landline cost me $25/month + long distance.