My point was that if you want something slightly outside of what Apple wants - something as basic as a Youtube app - it becomes “a ton of effort and potentially impossible”. A custom Android OS would indeed face more trouble than a stock Android/iOS (like with bank apps, again), but I was thinking more about desktop Linux, which would just exist without arbitrarily bothering you.
Also bank sanctions are rare but are applied to a ton of people simultaneously, which is also the case when an average person can find themselves at odds with their own phone.
It is not about customizations - again, my argument was about features as basic as not having ads online. Or for some people - accessing their bank app (including phone payments, which Apple also made impossible there).
My point was that I too put zero effort into my daily drivers, and can easily have perks that Apple would deny.