My last Android phone was a Razer Phone 2, SD845 circa 2018. Basically stock Android 9.

And it was smooth as butter. It had a 120hz screen while my iPhone 16 is stuck at 60, and I can feel it. And it flew through some heavy web apps I use while the iPhone chugs and jumps around, even though the new SoC should objectively blow away even modern Android devices.

It wasn't always this way; iOS used to be (subjectively) so much faster that it's not even funny, at least back when I had an iPhone 6S(?). Maybe there was an inflection point? Or maybe it's only the case with "close to stock" Android stuff that isn't loaded with bloat.