Can’t really argue with that but I think it’s important to understand what is really being offered here.
Projects like Fairphone are not meant to bring you the latest technology possible, because they are trying to ‘innovate’ or otherwise bring a valuable product to you in some other way. It’s the same story as with the Librem 5 phone: your money goes towards R&D so that they can work on something that hasn’t been done before, to an extend at least.
So is true that buying a refurbished phone will probably be cheaper, better for the environment (short term) and better value for the money in terms of performance. But please know what you are evaluating here: you are still getting a brand new phone which has a removable battery and other components easily replacable, so you are supporting the environment directly (and indirectly through R&D investment) and the specs… well, they’re really not all that terrible to be honest, certainly more than enough for most people’s everyday use at least. I’ve always used devices less powerful than this one just fine up until today!
Again, you are making fair point (ha!) and in fact what’s holding me back from purchasing a Fairphone right now (besides the fact that my current phone still works fine) is the fact that is not supported by /e/, LineageOS or some other ROM at the moment. I really hope /e/ gets right on with this because I’d love to support both causes… but can’t have it all unfortunately.
Cheers!