I get bullied about having a Pixel as a 30 year old by all my close friends. No one wants the green bubble. At 12, fitting in is a big thing. Sometimes some things are worth adjusting for.
Just to balance things out.
The iPhones battery life has been amazing since the 11
There's technically no reason they can't pass through the raw media sent by MMS, but as a result of lack of engineering talent, cutting corners and technical debt, it is mangled and recompressed to potato quality before being delivered.
This problem would also affect iPhones that don't use iMessage.