Its the way the whole world except for the USA is going for mobiles. Canada is the other holdout with their bizzaro pricing plans that make the USA seem sane in comparison.

The subsidy is a holdover from the days of phones costing 1000s for a very basic one. The last decent free phone in NZ was the samsung S2 or S3 era where it was basically free on a quite cheap plan. Since then plans have got way better value and people have much easier access to credit thru the likes of Q card or gem visa to buy any phone anywhere on credit and the costs are not being hidden in a plan that then means they cant downgrade or move networks if needs change.