When I say user-hostile features I'm not talking about malware. Yes, I suppose theoretically you could fork a Free Software malware app and make it not-malware, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about things like Samsung putting ads on your TV home screen[1], or BMW charging a monthly subscription to access your car's seat heaters[2], or Sweden trying to install a backdoor in Signal. With Free Software, users get the final say on whether those features are installed on their devices or not.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/samsung/comments/184a1j6/why_do_i_h...
Users don’t get final say in what their devices do unless a software developer is willing and able to help them. Most are actually pretty helpless on their own.
There are lots of ways to figure out what version to install; which is a lot better than having literally no choice because there's only one option available: the one with homescreen ads/government backdoors/seat heater subscriptions.
Will some users make the wrong choice? Yes. Is that a valid justification for treating everyone like children unable to make decisions for themsleves? Absolutely not. Just as there are other ways to prevent real-wold crime than by locking everyone in concentration camps, there are other ways to prevent cybercrime than by locking everyone in an inescapable walled garden.
There is a long tail of malware in app stores, despite the efforts of app vendors to police such things. Nobody would be bothering to fork them because most technical users don't care about them, but they still attract lots of victims.
Example: malicious Chrome extensions. Authors of Chrome extensions receive enticing offers to sell and sometimes they do.