Exactly. It was just enough to make up for a higher resolution. It’s a larger 5S in terms of what it can do. It was screwed from day 1 in terms of longevity. And with iOS 11 being so bad, there was no way it’d run well.
I doubt I’d want to be using a 5S on iOS 11 either.
I actually do have a 5s on iOS 11 (wanted to switch to shared iCloud storage but didn't want to update my primary devices until they find and fix all the bugs). It's surprisingly tolerable. I'm sure my mom and dad would've both been content with the 5s on iOS 11. They think the iPad 3 performance is quite fine and the 5s+iOS 11 is a heck of a darned sight faster than the iPad 3 on
any firmware. Alas, their 5s's had mechanical issues so I gave them an SE and 7 respectively.
My mom accidentally updated her iPhone SE (A9) to iOS 11 and that one is working just as fast as it did on iOS 9 and 10. I think she's just at 8% battery wear, though.
And really, web browsing on an OG iPhone, I don't know how I managed to tolerate the checkerboards while waiting for even simple webpages to render. I guess ten years ago, just being able to view normal webpages on a phone was a novelty.