Sure a government agency may be forcing Apple or MS to help them spy on you, just as they could have compromised whatever else you are using.
But when you download software from at least the Apple App Store, you are in fact protected from many kinds of harmful software.
Let’s not lie and pretend that isn’t a real benefit to many people, even though there are serious downsides to it.
But even if you were right about the equivalence - what’s the point in the handwringing?
There is no way out unless we build our way out.
Shaking your fist at the man just isn’t going to do anything.
The reason there is no alternative is that we haven’t solved the problems yet. People are in fact trying.
Nothing you can say about Microsoft or Apple will make an alternative appear.
That’s a nasty communication you chose to receive by installing ad supported software.
It has nothing to do with security or really even computers.
As Apple has demonstrated, neither has the presence of closed software. Between Apple and Microsoft, they're nearly 100% likely to get software that is not trustworthy, and cannot be made so.
This would be less worrisome if the state did not compel these organizations to provide their data to the military on demand without a warrant, but due to the vertical integration of big tech companies and US military spying, this becomes a major threat to our society and the basic exercise of civic participation.
It's hard to do things like, for example, investigative reporting against corrupt government officials if the government officials know every time you open Premiere, and where you do it, because they forced your chip/OS manufacturer to tell them.