I would personally just not buy an iOS device for this reason, though now they're putting M* chips in them I suspect they'll eventually be jailbroken and able to run an open source operating sysem.
That being said, the discussion goes beyond the feelings of people for and against Apple. This is directly about addressing their business practices relative to the rest of the market, and these side-effects suck. If these changes don't directly remove a feature you care about, then there is no reason to throw yourself in the line of fire. Apple, much like every other FAANG company on the ladder, is ruthless. They're a min-maxed value extraction machine with the greatest marketing team ever assembled. It's hurting the rest of the industry, to the point that regulators have to step in and tell them they're wrong. And when they do (like the Dutch antitrust ruling), they refuse to acknowledge the results as fair and ignore the fines.
That's asshole behavior. Petty arguing on the internet hurts nothing but your feelings. Apple's lack of accountability has enabled government surveillance, legitimized China's ethnic cleansing, and snuffed out anyone who would try to compete with them on their own platform. When you personally defend their mess, you look messy by association.