I actually think it's disappointing that the SE has it's own release schedule. I simply want a small phone with the same high end internals, but I'm not willing to wait and see if a new SE will come in spring. By that time it almost makes sense to wait for the next iPhone...and probably repeat this thought process.

The SE should be part of the yearly refresh.

I did!

I'd actually switched over to Android after the iPhone 4S, to an Xperia Z3 compact from fall 2014. That was competing against the iPhone 6 when Apple had apparently abandoned what I consider to be comfortably sized phones.

With the iPhone SE I was happy to come back.

It was not available when iPhone 6 came out.