iPadOS does not exist outside of branding. Apple never actually forked the OS - there's jailbreak tweaks that will enable Stage Manager on iPhones, for example.

iPadOS does not exist outside of branding. Apple never actually forked the OS - there's jailbreak tweaks that will enable Stage Manager on iPhones, for example. iOS and iPadOS also share the same SDK - which incidentally, is still called iPhoneOS.sdk, not even iOS.sdk. iOS has always had the ability to gate features behind iPads vs. iPhones ever since the iPad first launched. That being said, I still don't think Apple rebranded iOS for iPads to evade an EU regulation. The EU wasn't even aware of Apple's monopoly until the Epic lawsuit a year and change later.