I completely disagree. As long as there are valid choices, an option to choose a walled garden has benefits. It’s only a problem when that’s your only realistic choice. In this case, as long as Android is common enough to be a valid choice and there are multiple Android manufacturers, then you really don’t see any of these problems.

If you don’t think there’s any innovation in phones, either

• phones are maturing. They are very powerful and do a lot: revolutionary change is much less likely now
• news fatigue. There are significant improvements in every model; I bet your self from ten years ago would be amazed. Also it’s silly to expect revolutionary change every year. Look less often

Or why battery life gets so bad after two or so years that most people are forced to buy a new one.

• iPhones seem to have better battery life. Come on over to the dark side
• I gave my two year old iPhone to my teen and battery health was still high eighties percent
• it’s really not that expensive to replace a battery. I mean, it might be in the latest models, but I historically pay Apple to do it after 2-3 years (so I can give it to my kid with full battery health) and it really doesn’t seem any more expensive after inflation than it’s been for decades. And there are cheaper places that can do it. While it’s a little frustrating that it’s difficult to do yourself, it’s just not put that bad