Something pretty crazy is that, in its early days, Xiaomi gained traction as a smartphone manufacturer because its devices offered incredible hardware for the price. At the same time, Xiaomi provided its own Android skin with virtually zero bloatware, while giving users an insane level of customization to make the experience fit their needs perfectly.

But that was before, now they pack more bloatware than samsung devices.

that's just not truth, MIUI was always bloated, but Xiaomi had great VFM + unlockable bootloader so nobody cared, nowadays is very difficult to unlock the bootloader, though you can achieve similar result with Shizuku and other tools which take advantage of Shizuku, the VFM ain't that good anymore, same goes for now discontinued OnePlus