you have to follow up the claim that it's a strawman with a counterpoint, otherwise it doesn't count. you can't just say strawman and walk away, if you actually want curious conversation, which is what this site seeks
Firstly, as someone who is frequently driven nuts by strawman arguments, thank you for spreading the general message!
In this particularly case though, I think you're missing the point. Apple takes an opinionated "we are right" approach to design, and it's typically an all-or-nothing thing. If Apple decides to allow choice, then you get choice. If they don't, then you don't. It's one whole, beautiful, integrated system (as they would say). There's a lot of (intentional) friction[1] in place to make keeping a toe in or out very uncomfortable.
[1]: Don't think this needs a citation, but if you disagree take a look at the "buy your mom an iphone" stories and the internal emails about making iMessage work on Android (Apple/Android families and all that)
> Apple takes an opinionated "we are right" approach to design, and it's typically an all-or-nothing thing. If Apple decides to allow choice, then you get choice. If they don't, then you don't.
Making iMessage work on Android is a non issue for most parts of the world: mobile messaging is fragmented and the US uses SMS/iMessage, while most of the rest of the world uses either whatsapp, LINE or WeChat.
I think you're missing the point. It's not about this single example. The point is that this is how Apple operates. It's embedded in product decisions all over the place.
But also, this comes off a bit like a "if you don't like it, move to another country" type of response. It's not very reasonable, and it's not very helpful for the majority of people.
