It turns out in practice I don't make much use of the extra freedoms that Android allows, certainly not to the point that it justifies buying worse hardware

I can love my Apple devices and also wish for features.

Wish for extra features is not the same thing as crush the free market with the arm of government.

Crushing the free market by... opening a monopoly up to market competition?

If Apple was so good that men voluntarily gave them 90% market share you’d call them a monopoly, though it was freely given. Now if they acted immorally, they ought to be reprimanded, but you demanding freedom by coercion is immoral.

They are acting immorally by restricting what users can do with devices they own. They are using their market power to coerce users into using their services.

The rules were made by representatives voluntarily elected by the people and are an expression of their free will.

> They are acting immorally by restricting what users can do with devices they own.

It is not immoral. They are open and upfront before you buy the device. I personally buy an iPhone because of the walls.

Keep in mind a village/castle with protective walls is not a prison.

It's not a prison until they take your freedom.

I'm sure Richard the Lionheart would've disagreed with you while locked up in Dürnstein castle.

The walls are only good if you're the one who controls access.

Take your freedom? Is someone now forcing you to buy an iPhone, like you want to force Apple to make a product?

The freedom is taken after the phone is bought, not before.

So I should be settled with inferior hardware, and huge privacy violations? Because the only way out from the latter is GrapheneOS on the Pixel, which is definitely not as great hardware-wise as the last few iphones, and then we didn’t even get to other properties like proper second-hand market and support.

>So I should be settled with inferior hardware, and huge privacy violations?

Of course not! You can bring the "huge privacy violations" to iOS, so all of us can enjoy them if we want to use Facebook, Instagram, some Google app, etc.!