that aalto paper is about how users are unable to correctly disable data collection, not how it's not possible.
I agree with you and those researchers that it's a huge problem. in a lot of ways we use the internet really abstractly now and there's no clear process for seeing whats going on behind the scenes and plenty of software manufacturers make it harder on purpose.
but as a person who uses ios and android daily, the privacy settings on ios are lightyears ahead of android.
it's still not as straightforward as it should be, and apple could be clearer about why some settings are important (advanced data protection in icloud protects you from having your cloud data subpoenaed but god luck knowing this!).