[jocoda]

It's clear that you do not own your device. It comes with limitations that tbf were agreed to upfront. For mobile, there is no real choice. Devil 1 is apple, devil 2 is google.

Imo, Apple should be allowed to charge what they want - I'm ok with that as long as I can sidestep their thrall and sideload whatever I choose at no cost. If I get burned, that's on me.

I think their costs in running the AppStore are the cost of doing business. They need this for their product. Without it, the product is nothing. And they get to suck 30% out of everything. Got to admire that.

Better would be a replacement OS but is that even possible?

[Const-me]

Android mobile devices aren't that bad. I'm using an android phone without a Google account for a few years now, works pretty good for me. I have multiple non-google app stores (one of them, Samsung, came pre-installed), using a third party web browser, and I can install software from APK files bypassing any stores at all. The only downside is lack of offline maps/navigation apps I had previously on windows phone. Web apps work but they require internet, just GPS doesn't cut it.