I highly doubt most who claim to be "Power Users" on the internet would be classified as such in the truest sense of the word; they simply enjoy complaining about trends in technology, & engage in posturing & outrage when a feature or design is gradually phased out over time. Most who extol the supposed "customizability" of android phones are highly unlikely to use any feature they mention on a day-to-day basis. Android's most useful feature, in my opinion is to side load apps. However, it seems this isn't something most android foresee the average user utilizing on a daily basis, and possibly as a vulnerability; from my understanding, modern android phones require you to enter a password to enable the side loading of apps. It's cell phone, I really dont' understand these advantages outside of say price point (apple cannot compete with android when it comes to budget), and the flexibility of side loading software in extenuating circumstances(say the app store complying with a government's request restrict access to e2ee messaging apps).

> Power users know better - they use whatever tool is best for the job.

I completely agree, actual power users simply use the device that is the best fit for an application, rather than crusading in the replies of threads across various sites, spreading the word of how greedy & terrible the design decisions <insert company here> makes.

The same self proclaimed "power users" will often imply that individuals who choose to use certain products possess lesser tech literacy. I don't really understand the logic behind that sentiment; obviously if a company markets their products as "just working", it will attract the average person. That's not an indication of tech illiteracy or laziness, it makes sense. Why wouldn't I want my cell phone to simply "just work?" on demand, with as little friction as possible (i.e software updates, particularly security updates are pushed out in a timely manner, overall software stability)? I know plenty of extremely tech literate people (PhDs in Computer Engineering & Computer Science) who choose to use an iPhone year after year. If you're expending most of your mental energy in your research & work with technology, why would you want the communication device you use on a daily basis to be something you have to tinker with, and configure in a non-standard way? That sounds like something I would do with say a raspberry pi, a piece of technology that I like employ my above average understanding of tech on, to customize it or achieve some really neat end goal.

Also to add, I agree, non standard hardware design is anti user and annoying, but apple doing so is not news, (in other news, the sky is blue type thing). If we want to prevent this, we need to push for regulations that force apple to comply.