Apple makes things difficult to hack but there is always a way.

For Music VLC is the best choice or copy via iTunes.

For Photos/Videos I use Immich it does support google and iCloud takeout backups restore.

For deleting native apps I mean you’re fighting their ecosystem which is what their customers like.

I do agree though that they are trying to sell everything they can.

And let’s see what future reveals about tracking, privacy and using our data to train their AI models.

I thinks at the end of the day it all boils down to individual goals: do you want freedom (choose linux and be agnostic of brands) or convenience (where brand do the heavy lifting and we just don’t care much about many things).

Oh! And thank you for sharing your thoughts. It was a good read.