I dislike the bundling of hardware and software alltogether.
In the world of laptops, we have a wonderful situation. I can select the hardware that I like, then wipe the whole disk and install the software I like. Which in my case is a Linux distribution and then exactly the applications I prefer.
You can kinda do that with Pixels and Sony Xperias only, because last I recall, they implement Android Verified Boot correctly (or non-draconianly), specifically avb_custom_key.
From a security and freedom perspective, I actually like the restrictions of the Android platform if implemented as Google intended, which means allowing you to roll your own ROM and relock the bootloader with your own keys. Android itself has among the strongest security models for a consumer platform, again if implemented as Google intended (which is why GrapheneOS only supports Pixels). You're actually not supposed to root your phone because that opens up a large attack surface.
It's inconvenient for customization, sure, but you can still wipe the phone and roll your own system. It's a matter of the workflow to do it.
Certainly they're much more complex. More susceptible to malware, too.
But they're also much more powerful. I can get tasks done 10x as fast. They're much more open, too. They have well-defined interfaces for most things, which means I can automate tasks. Can't do that on a phone.
In the world of laptops, we have a wonderful situation. I can select the hardware that I like, then wipe the whole disk and install the software I like. Which in my case is a Linux distribution and then exactly the applications I prefer.
I wish the world of phones was like that.