I'm confused, if Apple opened up to other browsers and software, but then started bullying AT&T to not pre-install chrome or firefox, then they would be in trou

I'm confused, if Apple opened up to other browsers and software, but then started bullying AT&T to not pre-install chrome or firefox, then they would be in trouble? But locking the possibility out on hardware is acceptable? Isn't it a much more tyrannical action to have complete control over what software users can install, as opposed to simply using bullying and incentives to argue about what software may and may not be per-installed? At least on windows I could opt to install Netscape myself even if it wasn't pre-installed, isn't that the much lesser evil?