Are you sure it is your whole country or it's you?

I mostly buy my phones outright too, but I am under no impression that everybody else does it as well.

In my country, for example, buying phones from carriers as part of your plan just isn't a thing. As in, you couldn't do it even if you wanted to. Same for postpaid plans and contracts.

As a result, quite a lot of people use the "I can't believe they could make and sell an entire phone at this price" Xiaomi and similar phones.

The planet is full of such countries, it isn't only me.