Speechify is pretty good. You gotta pay to get the most out of it, but I use it enough to justify it. (Mostly for an egregiously long serial novel.) Sometimes there's jank, but the support and dev teams are super responsive.
I switched from Android to iPhone a few years ago and certainly don't miss having to sort through a sea of models when looking for something new. I keep all my old devices to use for hobby projects, so I appreciate the longevity of updates that Apple gives.
If you're looking for a great camera, a new iPhone will certainly give that to you. And of course you'll almost certainly get a long tail of os upgrades like you've had with your 6s, so if you keep it for 5+ years the price is more tolerable. A 64gb 12 mini can be had for 800 CAD new. And you can certainly get cheaper if you buy second-hand.