This is pointless - I don’t agree to the view that iOS and Android are equal - anymore than windows and Linux are equal.

The same goes for the companies behind - one sell devices the other sell ads through their free services.

The customisation you speak about is the same like what browser-bars introduced on pc’s ages ago. Some users have a good working one, but non technical people can end up being tricked in adding one without understanding. That is why it has a cost - nobody can easily swap out the dialer on iOS to listen in. On Android it’s standard functionality