The snapdragon 810 has native support for it, (it also has native support for micro SD), they just need the front end components (in the case of NFC, For the from end RF handling components, you are looking at a cost of around $1 to implement it in the smartphone. Other than that, you just need to find a place to put the NFC antenna. If you look at various IHS BOM estimates, for phones offering 802.11ac wireless, bluetooth, NFC, 4G LTE, they often group all of the wireless radios into a single entry, and it is almost always $15 as the overall cost (that includes supporting components such as regulators, capacitors, front end components such as antennas, LNA(s), filters and everything else needed to make it work to get a usable signal to the SOC. (in their videos, they will often show glimpses at more detailed cost breakdowns and you will see companies spending around $1 to implement NFC

For micro SD, the snapdragon 810 has a built in controller, and all you need to do is run the PCB traced out to a micro SD card slot, and have a small capacitor on the power input for the SD card. (in volume , those slots are around 11 cents each.

Due to them justifying the choice to skip NFC because they do not feel that it will be useful until next year, allows you to read in between the lines and see the planned obsolescence. They actually want the device to essentially only offer a 1 year service life for the majority of users.

The problem is that this will backfire due to psychological reasons. Most of the major branded phones often have their costs subsidized through cell carrier contracts, thus to the average consumer, they don't see an 800 dollar price tag for a super high end phone, they see a $200 phone with a 2 year contract.

Thus even though the one plus two will be cheaper overall, it will not seem that way to the average consumer.