> iOS devices [..] have much less data collection than stock Android

iOS does a tremendous amount of data collection including for the usage of ads as per Apple's privacy policy. All the same types of data that stock Android collects, even.

You may believe Apple is a generally better steward of that data than Google, but using iOS does not reduce the amount of data being hoovered up in any meaningful capacity.

> Now there's also no more sideloading, so what purpose does Android even serve anymore?

I hate this change, but I still prefer Android. iOS is hardly perfect nor does it do everything better...