This is exactly how I feel about Android; it's a little frustrating to me, looking at my family's Android phone usage, that most peoples' experiences of Android are solely on Samsung devices with extremely heavy modifications to the interface. It's great that companies are allowed to customize the interface to fit their devices, but at the same time, it can create a skewed perspective of Android devices as a whole.

My parents both liked Android all right, but had issues with Samsung-specific interface choices, and eventually switched back over to Apple as a result. Same with my sisters (who only experience very early Android phones), etc. Same issue with my wife, except she finally got a Pixel, which fixed her skewed perception of Android devices.

Switching to Lineage OS after using bloated stock ROMs is a breath of fresh air, both in terms of performance and simplicity.