To a large degree I think this is more true than not.

Putting style aside, it's ridiculous that we don't have basic common designs that "just work". I want a kettle and toaster that are expected to work for decades and can be easily repaired if something goes wrong. There are some reasons to differentiate (e.g. I want shoes that work well and last but people have different foot support needs) but in my ideal world we have shared product functionality and slap stylistic preferences on top of that.

The problem is once you do that that particular design will stop improving fast. e.g what if phones were legislated to all be open to everything and everyone and standardized at Symbian S40.

I'd actually be for it if it was S60.

Pro-consumer stances are literally communism now?

It is not a pro consumer stance, it is pro power consumer stance, and anti the layperson consumer stance (who arguably deserve more support).

Incorrect. The layperson will, as they always have, continue using the default app store while remaining blissfully unaware of any alternatives.

Exactly, just like how they avoided all those windows malwares by not clicking on untrusted links and not installing random applications.