Google Play services track nearly everything on the device with system level access.
I switched to an iPhone a few years ago to get further from Google, but the crap with the App Store is getting so out of hand now. My next device will probably be a Pine Phone.
As a long time iPhone user I'm on the same boat. I do hope there will be a somewhat beta level Pine Phone soon. I'm already thinking should I get my old Nokia n900 from the storage box and start using that. Not comfortable with Androids and the latest Apple actions are making me feel a bit unsure on the direction they are taking.
There’s a bunch of neat little things like that you get on Android if you use Google, but you can get on iOS with any server backend.
I hope Apple opens up a bit because there really needs to be serious competition in this space.