Only having to deal with Apple's BS is likely better than being at the whims of all the dominant players. The latter creates a race to the bottom with no hope

Only having to deal with Apple's BS is likely better than being at the whims of all the dominant players. The latter creates a race to the bottom with no hope of improving the ecosystem. I think that's the main reason iOS is slowly eating Android's global market share, and why it remains the market leader in the US. As bad as iOS is for privacy and respecting user choice, Android is worse in practice. There's an argument that Android's openness benefits the end user, but it falls apart in practice: almost all third party apps (and certainly the ones that other people force you to use) depend on Play Services, which is a giant pile of surveillance capitalism and battery drain. Having said that, I'd like to be able to toggle my iPhone into EU mode and sideload a few things.