SIM-only contracts

Report on payment methods for phones in UK, GFK.com

"The growth of the SIM free market has had an impact on SIM only sales. Both prepay and contract SIM cards have also seen growth year on year and combined saw an increase of over 10% in March 2014 year on year. With the growth of SIM free and the penetration of 4G in the market, operators now offer more variety in terms of SIM only deals as the market gets increasingly competitive."

From GFK.com

My previous two phones were purhcased in this method, however after doing the maths, it doesn't seem to be worthwhile to do this in Ireland anymore (Before, if you paid up front for the phone, it worked out substantially cheaper than paying for the phone over 12 or 24 months whereas now, it all adds up the same amount). Would you agree?