> If you have two choices and one is barely better than the other
I don't think "barely better" accurately represents the situation, since the other choice here literally allows sideloading. It's not barely better, it is better if you want to sideload apps. To paraphrase your meme, society has already been improved somewhat.
The problem is you have to make a trade off, and for no reason. You might like iPhones in quite a few ways better than you like Android phones, but also really want to sideload.
So what do you do? Well, you have to compromise. And not for a real technical reason. You have to compromise because Apple's business model depends on being able to extract more money from customers and developers by being a gatekeeper.
Whenever a company's business model prevents me from doing something I want with a product they might sell me, I think twice about buying that product.
I don't think "barely better" accurately represents the situation, since the other choice here literally allows sideloading. It's not barely better, it is better if you want to sideload apps. To paraphrase your meme, society has already been improved somewhat.