> I'm very happy

1. Buy phone

2. Disable most stuff

3. Use some experimental third party tool to "debloat" phone

I don't know, that's the exact stuff that would make me the opposite of happy.

There's unfortunately no such thing as the perfect phone. I think the initial effort of setting up a new phone/computer/whatever is a good trade-off it means afterwards I get the experience I want (or as close as I can get).

i've never had to uninstall stuff from an iOS device. i always _must_ root android devices to make them work 'well'.

>i've never had to uninstall stuff from an iOS device.

But if you decide to uninstall Apple Maps or Apple Calendar, you will find that they remain the default choices for the OS, even if yo uninstalled them.

And if you decide to "uninstall" (not enable) Siri, you won't be able to use Shortcuts.

That's not entirely true. You can uninstall Apple Maps and Apple Calendar, among many others: https://support.apple.com/en-ph/HT211833

And you can set another email client or browser as default https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211336, albeit not a calendar app.

What did I say that is not entirely true?

My 2000s Razr wants a word

To be fair this is the kind of forum where many folks will kind these activities entertaining.

On my S10 I disabled all the hidden pre-loaded Facebook apps that you can't delete.

I checked the settings after 8 months and they actually added more hidden facebook apps without my knowledge or agreement.

Couldn't justify buying another one after that.

I have an S21, never used any "debloater" or anything and I'm very happy with it. Literally no issues, it's very solid and just works.

If I try that, my banking app refuses to boot because it assumes its jailbroken or something.