If you don't think Apple is worse than Google you're doing it wrong.
I'm not denying that both are monopolies and bad in their own way. But at the very least, Apple's business model is primarily based on selling hardware, rather than selling data--though I don't deny that their data collection is also pretty absurd, if you've ever requested the data from a single Apple ID. Most of the time I've seen privacy ranked as follows: Stock Android < iPhone < Custom ROMs.
Now, security is another story. I hate how locked down the iPhone's ecosystem is, to the point where you can't download any apps unless you create an Apple ID (at least this isn't required on Mac computers), but I can't deny that the locked down state is part of Apple's security practices. This is why we hear of malicious apps being removed from the App Store less frequently than we hear about apps being removed from the Play Store. This is why I said Apple's security practices have contributed to their monopolistic practices.
And for the average person who doesn't have a high threat model, and who isn't tech-savvy enough to use a custom ROM, then the iPhone provides a trade-off, and it "just works." Sometimes people just need that. As for myself, I'm willing to trade some convenience for more control over my data, which is why I prefer open-source projects, but not everyone's into that.
