Another reason is that Apple’s hardware tend to be very high quality. For example, on JavaScript benchmarks (which you may or may not consider to be a good proxy for general/single threaded performance), an iPhone7 performs comparably to the current latest Android phones. Also spare parts or replacements are easy to come by.
I’m quite unconvinced that the boot loader exploit demonstrates that the platform is so insecure that you shouldn’t use it. If you want to run a different operating system on a typical android device you would either not need to circumvent such security measures (which doesn’t mean that they exist or work) or you would use some exploit that didn’t get such wide press.
A (old) phone/tablet running Linux connected via USB/ADB/Network can be used as:
* (Additional) Webcam for your computer
* (Additional) microphone/Touch-pad for your computer
* (Additional) (status) screen for your computer/whatever_with_USB
* Security-cam/Digital-picture-frame for your whatever_with_USB
* (Additional) Network-available environmental sensors (light, temp, vibration).
* (Additional) Wifi/xG Network (scanning) device for your PC
If this doesn't make dozens of useful workflows available to you ... then I don't know, what you have been doing with computers before.
But your claim is verifiably false: https://computerhistory.org/blog/microsoft-word-for-windows-...
Which was a good thing.
The commenter unironically using Orwellian phrasing like "be sure of the integrity of the device" shows how far we've come.
You don't want to know that your phone hasn't had a rootkit installed on it by someone who borrowed it off your desk while you were in the office kitchen?
Not, say, disable flashing if the passcode protected lock screen is up?
I had a much more snarky answer before this one about how realistic this scenario is for most people, but I will keep it to myself.
I guess an os thats not really supposed to be running might be less stable, but I would hope most OSes are stable enough to essentially never require reboots. (aside from power loss + updates)
And I've used unlocked bootloader devices before. My threat model allows for that exploit to be performed on me should someone desire it. The utility I gain exceeds the risk = f(likelihood, loss).