I mean any competitor would right? see how the other products are better and how you can use those insights to improve your own?

everybody has reports like that.

> But actually after the iPhone was released Samsung deliberately went through it screen by screen and produced a 132-page report on what features and interface elements they should steal from the iPhone.

Did you know competitive analysis is something that is frequently done across many industries? GM/Mercedes/Toyota are among the first customers to buy[1] their competitors latest models and they disassemble them to the last bolt to figure out/estimate materials, methods and costs per component, sub-assembly and unit level. I see nothing unethical or nefarious about that.

1. Often they pay companies like Munro & Associates (https://leandesign.com/) do the analysis on their behalf

Competitive analysis is different than cloning the look & feel of something. "They have a unified design style with very nice rounded corners throughout the OS, we should have our own unified design style with our own nice touches" is not the same thing as "we should copy their style wholesale". GM isn't making cars that look like Toyota's.

Competitive analysis is one thing, point for point copying of another company's user interface is unethical. Apple put in the R&D to make the iPhone interface more intuitive and easy to use compared to other phones at the time. Samsung copied Apple's homework.