I'm not arguing over better hardware (performance) or price. I am arguing over hack-ability; that's it. I hope you can understand that.
Neither was the comment you replied to.
They were arguing that Apple provides excellent hardware support (in terms of repairs and how long they take) and lifetime (in terms of how long updates are provided for the device).
Hackability is irrelevant. Apple clearly doesn’t target that market and hadn’t since the Apple II days.
Would you buy a Lamborghini and complain it makes a terrible truck?
That’s not something Apple designs their products for, and their users are either fine with that or willing to make the trade off for the other things Apple does prioritize.
Some are more "hackable" than an iPhone, but only in some strange symbolic way, since once you de-googled android is somehow more user-hostile than iOS and completely unhackable in practice (in the sense that I can't make it do what I want and also be usable as a daily driver that lets me do stuff like pay for stuff, use public transit, charge my car, park, or take an uber/lyft).
I'm a happy owner of a pine book pro, and a pc engines router; I get it. However, I don't think there are any viable Linux laptops or phones that compare favorably to the linux laptop + phone I had a decade ago.
"(in the sense that I can't make it do what I want and also be usable as a daily driver that lets me do stuff like pay for stuff, use public transit, charge my car, park, or take an uber/lyft)."
So either the hardware you bought isn't letting you do what you want with it (this includes iPhone too!) Or you become a better hacker and get it to work yourself.