macOS itself is actually designed in a very modular way if you look at the message based integration of components via XPC and "do one thing" daemons.

I have accepted that I must forfeit some personal preferences in the Apple ecosystem, but I choose to draw the line with not being able to disable intrusive and privacy related features/components.

A similar complaint can be made about Windows, which is more monolithic in its design in my view, but it offers (as mentioned in my top-level comment) proper descriptions and a UI to disable services. Also there are many tools like Win10Privacy and such available which disable a lot, without making the system to constantly misbehave.

"trains on time" - While I appreciate the metaphor, when considered carefully, it is more likely linux and the pragmatic approach that makes the "trains run on time" in many fields. (embedded and server-side)

The only platform that does this is iOS, which embeds an ideology that forces developers to lock down their apps even against their own wishes, and hence prevents the use of GPLv3 licensed code.

Meanwhile, the major Linux distros include all types of licenses, including proprietary.