To be clear, you’re only stuck in Apple’s walled garden in any meaningful sense on a couple Apple devices. The Apple Watch, for example, doesn’t work with anything but an iPhone. It might do some basic stuff with Android OEMs, but it won’t do as much. AirPods work on Android, but not all features. iPhones can’t officially sideload (there are ways). Mac is wide open. Apple TV (the box) doesn’t care what phone you have, though it has tighter speaker integration with HomePods.
I feel like those who say “walled garden” are speaking on something very specific or they aren’t very savvy. I’ve never felt limited by Apple’s “walls”. I use their tech because they’re the best for what I need, for the most part. I also have an Android phone (and it’s 5 years older than my iPhone), and there are a couple things it does better. Like the keyboard. While I do acknowledge that the “walled garden” means I have to give advantages to Apple tech because it talks to Apple tech (and nobody else really has this kind of ecosystem), it doesn’t do much to stop me from going outside of it. For example, my wife has an Android phone (and only the one) and she has just as good an experience on the Macs and Apple TV. She does also have an iPad though, but she’s not locked into the ecosystem, and she’s far less tech savvy than I am. She uses a Mac because that’s what I bought. She doesn’t care as long as it runs Firefox.
To be clear, you’re only stuck in Apple’s walled garden in any meaningful sense on a couple Apple devices. The Apple Watch, for example, doesn’t work with anything but an iPhone. It might do some basic stuff with Android OEMs, but it won’t do as much. AirPods work on Android, but not all features. iPhones can’t officially sideload (there are ways). Mac is wide open. Apple TV (the box) doesn’t care what phone you have, though it has tighter speaker integration with HomePods.
I feel like those who say “walled garden” are speaking on something very specific or they aren’t very savvy. I’ve never felt limited by Apple’s “walls”. I use their tech because they’re the best for what I need, for the most part. I also have an Android phone (and it’s 5 years older than my iPhone), and there are a couple things it does better. Like the keyboard. While I do acknowledge that the “walled garden” means I have to give advantages to Apple tech because it talks to Apple tech (and nobody else really has this kind of ecosystem), it doesn’t do much to stop me from going outside of it. For example, my wife has an Android phone (and only the one) and she has just as good an experience on the Macs and Apple TV. She does also have an iPad though, but she’s not locked into the ecosystem, and she’s far less tech savvy than I am. She uses a Mac because that’s what I bought. She doesn’t care as long as it runs Firefox.