> If you don't want to buy into a walled garden, you have the choice not to do so.

You can still lament the wider societal scale impacts of increasing controls. If both Google and Apple become walled gardens, then what exactly is left? And people need smartphones to get through daily life, interact with banks and government offices.

And I bet Windows is going to head down the same path. ID-verified-by-default, only government and corporate-approved apps installable, AI surveillance running in the background analyzing your every click (for your safety) etc. You see, we need that to catch the bad guys.

You can certainly lament anything you like and refuse to buy into walled gardens, but it's not Apple's fault that Google lied to you about their platform being "open".