Comment by 2xpress

Indeed it is still possible to get a Pinephone, Librem 5, or an Android phone with an unlockable bootloader such as Fairphone (in Europe), Teracube, and lots of Samsung Galaxy phones and put LineageOS on it.

The issue is that "the masses" just "go with the flow" and act like if everybody else is jumping off a cliff then it's ok to jump off a cliff too, and it is these mobs that move the markets and determine which products and services become the most popular.

However, in relatively free countries it is still possible to live one's life on one's own terms and not be in the same herd with the sheeple. It is definitely possible to live life without an iPhone and to have an Android phone with F-Droid rather than the Google Play Store as one's primary phone.