Once you remove these things that you want to remove, you wind up losing the very things that attract you to iPhone in the first place!
I'm hoping anti-trust law will come to bear on software from apple.
At least in my case, I wasn't attracted to the iPhone because of forced Webkit and the Lightning port.
Yes, but that's the misunderstanding. You want those features without the trade-offs. Apple's hardware and software support come at the expense of "features" like "side loading". If you add in these featuers you want, you lose the hardware and software support you bought the iPhone for in the first place.
It's like the RCS nonsense that Google is pushing (hint, if you have to advertise a standard, it's not a good standard). The iPhone is its own thing. If you want these other features and "more freedom" then the iPhone isn't the device for you. I don't buy an Xbox expecting to play Zelda or with the expectations that it is highly portable. It's just a suite of product features and you have to choose what features you want.
Besides immorally using force now the iPhone will be littered with alt stores where you can only get certain popular apps making the iPhone a nightmare.
Those who thought they were so clever in forcing change will be seen to be fools.