Interesting, that's what I was wondering exactly, thanks for the context.

I think the main difference between our experiences is stemming from the "Play" garden.

when I was on android, I didn't care that the Play experience was being "deprecated" because all I would use it (and YTM) for was music. And now with Apple, I just think it as my "music" app. And regardless of platform, I find it absolutely demolishes Spotify top to bottom in UI/UX, audio options, discovery, app health, etc.)

I've never had AA/Carplay, so not surprised this has never bothered me. Makes me realize i'm missing an entire feature suite.

Have you tried it recently? I'm interested if you'd find it to be more "normie polished" than it used to be.

Edit: not sure why I'm defending an evil mega-corp, trying to justify my years of purchases I guess :)