Why are these awful phones for sale—some for very much money!—when you can buy phones that aren't awful and cost zero dollars? Corporate apathy, manufacturing antipathy, a large populace of people who will literally walk into a store and buy anything, like molecules bouncing around in a void—all possible.
What's interesting is how these handsets live in a crappy "$50 hinterland" between smartphones and reliable, well-made $20 burners. With gadgets, mid-range is low-end.