iOS famously doesn't allow reloading themes or software. It's part of why they struggled to find a carrier to launch with in the beginning, because carriers modifying phones used to be the norm.
There are settings carriers can push to iOS (access to features like tethering, some network configuration stuff) but this type of malware cannot be pushed onto iOS. At worst, carriers push shitty Java applets to the (e)SIM, but that's all sandboxed off from any user interaction.
The two options are reach over all else, or control of its customers and overcharging them at every turn over all else.
One is not obviously better than the other, though I'll grant that Apple has managed to get their users to a place where being subjected to them has become a point of pride, which is impressive.
If we look iphone versus the direct google phones, both are quite expensive and at this point google's about $800/TB for storage upgrades is actually worse than apple's price.
Yes the Pixel phones are just as unaffordable as iPhones in this case, you're right! Google and Apple are the same here. If you want an inexpensive phone you must look for an Android phone that is not made by Google.
I think the structure of this article definitely made it harder to find the details to some of these questions—the fact that it's posted as 5-8 different "blog" entries instead of a single webpage made it harder then it needed to be to get to the technical conclusions section. Also, some of the method call listings on this page: https://www.benedelman.org/applovin-execution-path/ were unnecessarily verbose, and duplicative with the later pages that actually explained the flow in more detail e.g. https://www.benedelman.org/applovin-execution-sdk/
Having all of the sections of the article on the same page would have helped surface and resolve a lot of these potential editorial issues.
Thanks for these suggestions. You may be right. I split the article into pages based on feedback from early readers that it was too long. Custom nav bar in the top-right, but maybe still not quite right. I've never previously posted anything of this length or complexity.
Thanks also for reading so carefully. My web stats say many people stopped at the summary!
Edit: Discussed somewhat here https://www.benedelman.org/applovin-permissions/. Seems like it's abetted by garbage from the carrier.
Something for iOS to look forward to?