> It's all about which company can screw the other out of engagement and eyeballs.

Well that is kind of how media companies compete against each other, but the key question is: is it beneficial or harmful to the public?

You could argue that Apple is acquiring users who they then lock in, sell to advertisers and developers (for a 30% cut on the App store) and monetize with service subscriptions, but you can also argue that half of Apple's profit is still from hardware sales, that apps and services are a big reason for buying that hardware, so Apple is still beholden to its hardware customers to some extent.

And Google has https://wellbeing.google as well as associated features in Android, and Apple has also implemented "screen time" tracking and limits.