I don't know if this will make a difference to you or not, but the included earbuds aren't plain old wired buds. They're essentially a wired version of last year's Pixel Buds, with the Assistant and translation functionality.
There's also a better screen (according to people at the event), better security and camera (some of which may come to the older models, and some that won't). In reality, I'd say there are more changes from the Pixel 2 to 3 than there was from the Pixel 1 to 2.
But I'm not saying everyone needs to own one either. Just pointing out that it's not like the changes are all software. But while it would've been great if they could've kept the price the same, I can understand them increasing it.