I disagree that this is a straw man. Apple has been consistent for _years_ on this issue -- they clearly believe that choosing the Apple ecosystem is synonymous

I disagree that this is a straw man. Apple has been consistent for _years_ on this issue -- they clearly believe that choosing the Apple ecosystem is synonymous with choosing to only be able to run code that has been reviewed (theoretically) by the app store team. If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck then it is a duck.