Prepaid Phones, what's the deal?

[GHolnyuk]

Hello, could someone explain to me the point of prepaid phones. 1st, what is meant by "Prepaid"?
I "pre"paid $80 for a Samsung J3 at Best Buy, came home, activated it on Virgin(Sprint),
chose $35-5GB, and have been happy with it.

But... what's the point of buying a phone at all?

Best Buy has a Samsung - Galaxy S8 for $21.66 /mo. for 24 months. Which is $520 for 2 years.
Retails for $756.
But, Verizon states 2 GB for $35/mo.; worse than Virgin and Best Buy. I dont get it. Help me out here.

 

[rgd1101]

it just the plan, the phone is the same unless it carrier locked.
j3 is a low end phone. Can't compare that to a high end S8.