I think his point was less about the purchasing ecosystem for the music and more about the premium for the hardware/OS/brand/accessories/what-have-you required

I think his point was less about the purchasing ecosystem for the music and more about the premium for the hardware/OS/brand/accessories/what-have-you required to play any music at all. Though, seriously, if I can throw a little bit extra (shockingly not a lot, compared to similar modern Android offerings) at my phone and not have this kind of basic problem and, presumably, other basic problems of a similar nature then there is a tipping point of efficiency that isn’t terribly far away.