I respectfully disagree in my case. I don't consider myself a security expert at anything, especially at computers. This is probably 99.999% of the Apple customers.
People like yourself can probably manage their own security, have a secure NAS, multiple firewalls, etc.
Do you see it from the perspective of average Joe (or me)?
That's fine, but you're telling everyone else that, because you personally are not willing to take responsibility for the security of your devices, it's ok for a corporation to dictate that no one is.
This doesn't need to be an either/or situation. You can outsource your security and privacy decisions to Apple while simultaneously allowing others to take full control of their devices.
No, that's not a fair take. I am saying that everyone is probably more akin to not knowing a darn thing about security (outside of HN caccoon) than people who are commenting here to setup their own security infrastructure.
Given the conditions of how ignorant large percentage (~ 99.999%) of the Apple customers are, I would trust Apple more than any other party to keep them and myself safe.
Can you imagine third parties siphoning off data, metrics, photos, etc. without Apple safe guarding user's interest?
I would pay a lot of premium for security if I don't have to do it myself.
I think maybe you're missing the point? I don't even disagree with what you're saying, but we can have it both ways: the alleged 99.999% (I suspect you're exaggerating) can have by-default strict security with no apps allowed unless installed through Apple's App Store, and the rest could do whatever they want.
I trust Debian to supply and maintain the software on my machine. But, at any moment, I can choose to add other trusted parties, or remove the Debian repositories, or add my own patched version of some app.
I usually choose to trust them, because it's convenient and because they probably know better than I do. But my trust in Debian is completely voluntary, non-exclusive and revocable.
Android has that, but you can also side-load apps if you think you are knowledgeable enough to want to. That's the main contention with how Apple runs things, there is no proper escape hatch.
Do note that trusting other people is not incompatible with trusting yourself. Often you can trust yourself to the point where you know you will be over your head, and then hand off that trust to someone else.
And what about giving people choice? Androids often come with locked bootloader and users can unlock it. Unlocking permanently deletes all user data. Apple is not giving any such choice!