If you're so focused on privacy why don't you just use Linux? With Linux you'll actually get real privacy and you'll really truly own the system.
Apple takes a 30% tax on all applications running on their mobile devices. Just let that sink in. We are so incredibly lucky that never happened to PC.
As much as anyone can say otherwise, running Linux isn’t just a breeze. You will run into issues at some point, you will possibly have to make certain sacrifices regarding software or other choices. Yes it has gotten so much better over the past few years but I want my time spent on my work, not toying with the OS.
Another big selling point of Apple is the hardware. Their hardware and software are integrated so seamlessly. Things just work, and they work well. 99% of the time - there’s always edge cases.
There’s solutions to running Linux distros on some Apple hardware but again you have to make sacrifices.
Even on the machines most well-supported by Linux, which are Intel x86 PCs with only integrated graphics and Intel wifi/bluetooth, there are still issues that need to be tinkered away like getting hardware-accelerated video decoding working in Firefox (important for keeping heat and power consumption down on laptops).
I keep around a Linux laptop and it's improved immensely in the past several years, but the experience still has rough edges to smooth out.
> Even on the machines most well-supported by Linux, which are Intel x86 PCs with only integrated graphics and Intel wifi/bluetooth
Uhh, this is just untrue. I have it running on three different laptops from different vendors and Fedora, pop_OS!, and Ubuntu were all pretty much drop-in replacements for Windows, no problems.
You "keep around a Linux laptop" but I daily drive them and it's fine. Sure, there's the odd compatibility problem which could be dealbreaking, but it's not like MacOS is superior in that regard.
I'm just speaking from personal experience. That example was real, Firefox did not work with hardware accelerated video decode out of the box for me under Fedora, which was pretty high impact with that machine being used for studying. I got it working and it's kept working since, but like I said, it took some tinkering.
macOS has its own oddities of course, but they don't impede such basic usage as video playback.
I have used several distributions and daily driven linux for long periods of time (2-3 years) since 2008. Even today multimedia apps have issues, these can be solved by going through online forums, but it's always a frustrating start. Usually upgrades to software will re-introduce these issues and you will need to follow the same steps.
Apple takes a 30% tax on all applications running on their mobile devices. Just let that sink in. We are so incredibly lucky that never happened to PC.