The freedom, such as it is, comes from alternative app stores. I trust F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/) somewhat more than I trust apps on the Play Store so that's my first stop when I'm looking for something.

Well, you can use 3rd party app stores like F-Droid, which is open source...

You don't have to use the Google Play store, other app stores and side-loading are available, so there is still freedom in Android, but not so much in Google Play.

In other words, Android gives access to multiple curated app stores, and side-loading. Whilst I understand that Apple only allowed use of apps from their own store until the EU stepped in, and now they have an EU-available update that allows side-loading.

Android is not the same thing as the Play Store. As far as I can tell, every Android user has the option to enable the installation of 3rd party software (though I could be wrong here, since my experience is with phones/tablets and not other Android based devices). When you deal with the Play Store, you are dealing with the store's policies rather than a limitation of the Android platform.

Well, Google's strategy is about imposing more restriction on the actually free AOSP. If you don't want any google product, you can still use Android.

I'm not aware of any iPhone that has documentation for unlocking the bootloader.

However, I agree that for the average person, they're both almost as free.