Yeah, moving from Google over to Apple is just cheating. It's better for privacy, but I'd rather thinker with my system to remove the spyware than remove the spyware and largely give up the ability to easily tinker with my system.
I switched to an iPhone recently, but I'm not really engaging heavily with Apple's services or ecosystem.
After a point of tinkering, flashing Roms, getting stuck in hairy situations where your phone is bootlooping and you don't know if you will get it back.
At some point having to mess with configuration gets annoying.
I kinda view this like an experiment to see how the other side is living with my eye very much on Android waiting for an excuse to jump back over.
I wish there were more good options for De-Google'd Android shipped from a vendor that actually cared about privacy and had the chops to make a smooth experience