This. Though it seems to be getting harder to root android phones, at least from my very limited perspective. It's also why I'm a bit horrified at the direction Windows has taken, making some things nearly impossible to disable or remove. I find myself having to dig into the registry much more than I used to in order to stop annoying behavior or system-draining processes. (For example: I'm happy to stay updated with the latest security patched, but do not reboot my computer on your own authority when I may be running very long processes on it. Rather annoying to wake up and find a model I was training was aborted because Update decided to reboot)

> I really hope that there's a real market out there for people who want to own their phones and control their destinies.

If there is, I haven't found anyone servicing it. This is why I've been reduced to building my own smartphone. That appears to be the only way I can keep control over my own machine.