Carrier bought phones except iphones. I think that was the point the OP was making; you can walk into a carrier store and buy an iphone from them, and it's the

Carrier bought phones except iphones. I think that was the point the OP was making; you can walk into a carrier store and buy an iphone from them, and it's the same phone you'd get from Apple, just with the carrier sim already included. But any Android phone you buy from the carrier is going to come with a whole lotta cruft. None of that applies if you buy a phone separately from the carrier (so Google phones, or OnePlus, or similar), but most of those also make arrangements with the carriers, I think, to recognize the phone before sale (at least, my carrier recognized both my Pixel and OnePlus devices at the times I had them).