You're wishing the Kindle wasn't a Kindle. Amazon clearly has 0 interest in making an open-ish e-reader.
Yes, you can dislike the Kindle, but to say it's a bad e-reader is like saying a bicycle is a bad car.
Going with your logic, it's correct to say that it's a bad e-reader, because it's not an e-reader but a Kindle.
Re:Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite
by walteweiss on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @02:17AM
(#28613574)
What you all guys mean by Kindle? I have one for like a decade and I don’t get it. It’s not a strong brand of itself like iPhone (which is also smartphone).
All I can tell about it is that it’s a mediocre reader and that’s it. I don't upgrade it to any other reader because it just works, so I’m going to keep it till it won’t.
An audio player that played proprietary files by exactly one record company would be obvious bullshit.
Somehow publishing has allowed itself to be squeezed into the e-reader equivalent. The result is a predictable lack of quality in both hardware and software - never mind consumer choice and delivery options.