We should not be so confident about anything involving the USA moving forwards - after the recent election, EVERYTHING can now be different. Maybe. Possibly, but while I don't know what will happen, I also do not know what will not happen either, hence this is a time of great uncertainty.

I have thought about trying another iPhone, though if I did, I would want it not to be my only portable device. I simply cannot afford to be sent e.g. an email message or calendar invitation or some such and have it not come through or be displayed incorrectly purely b/c it came through via a Microsoft (or more rarely Google) account. So then on top of the >$1k price tag, I would need a laptop or Android that is still yet another ~$1k or at least hundreds more? (or depending on someone's workflow environment - e.g. if your work offers you a laptop, and you need that for a trip - then at least carry around a USB drive with you as well, to have available to use at a moment's notice). At that point though why not just get the Android and bypass the iPhone entirely, especially if that one device would meet all of your needs? iPhones are very pretty, with amazing glass touch & feel, and have nice functionality - again, so long as you remain entirely within their walled garden, though depending on my future job prospects, I may not be able to always function within those constraints.

And yes Google is ruining Android, according to many people from what I hear, though I am not fully up-to-date with it. I suppose my point there is that a downwards trend to go from an open-source environment moving towards a more closed one is still not comparable to iOS that is fully closed already. If Google is bad b/c it is making Android more like iOS, then how bad is Apple for having made iOS that way right from the start? Although I thought the actual case against Google was about its search engine, not Android, or there have been some other investigations along the lines of its Play Store, again not entirely about the actual "OS" (when such things as F-Droid can bypass their monopolistic store).

Most Apple fanboys, such as myself, tend to love Apple until it betrays/disappoints them and then abandon it in a huff of rage-quitting:-). I have taken a middling approach though and remained with Mac OSX b/c it is a fantastic product, but iOS is a different story imho. Either way their hardware and the software integration with that is top-notch, I agree with you there. It also is significantly more expensive for a similarly-specced Android device, especially for offering much less functionality - I suppose it is a more "premium" device, for those willing to and capable of working entirely within its tight limitations. I suppose my biggest beef is that I would no longer feel outright "proud" to own such a device (necessary for me to justify a higher price) as I would have in the past, and yet I cannot really say that about any modern mobile device anymore, unfortunately, with enshittification having touched every manufacturer so hard.

So I will vote with my wallet and find something that meets my needs when the time comes to replace my current one - possibly a non-flagship cheapie, or maybe a Fairphone if that would be good enough.