My younger self was all about the kind of freedom that makes people hate Apple. But my younger self didn't see the absolute disgusting mess the internet became (sorry teenage me, it's not a utopia unhindered by borders, fueled by access to free information). Now, sometimes I want Apple. Sometimes I want Disneyland. I get why at Disneyland a man mysteriously appeared out of nowhere in a red coat and white gloves to tell me and my kid friends to turn the system of a down coming from my buddies backpack speakers off because it's disruptive to the atmosphere. It's why you can have faith if you buy a Nintendo console you're going to get fun games anyone can enjoy. I get why apple doesn't want trash on their app store. When you buy Apple, you buy a device and an atmosphere. It's clean. It works.

> sorry teenage me, it's not a utopia unhindered by borders, fueled by access to free information

I'd argue that you found a walled garden inside of that unhindered utopia.

I agree. It's fun to just download a few apps and try them out. I enjoy installing new apps on my phone. I've heard people say "I hate installing apps" and these people are almost always Android users.

I haven't used Android for a few years, but back when I did it wasn't uncommon for me to come across apps that did horrible things, such as completely hijacking the Android UI to display ads or whatever. I bought into Apple's walled garden specifically to get away from this garbage, and I'll be none too pleased if legislation forces my user experience to be degraded.

You are conflating "app store" with "content filter".

You can have one without the other, or you can use both. Also you could have a choice in which app store or which content filter you use.

Apple happily lets you believe those concepts are one and the same thing, though. And users buy into it.