Well it tends to come up for me because I'm the tech person around the house and at work, so phone and other device / software recommendations tend to come my way. I don't really care what phone you use, I ain't that much of a prick.
CaptainAlchemy
To be fair, unlike previous years iphone releases I've seen more skepticism than normal. I fully expected diehard apple users to be resenting the removal of the lightning connector due to excess charging cables. And while those comments exist, it is a very small minority of people. However with that said I don't fully understand the mindset of buying a phone that has limited or obsolete hardware / software. (ergo headphone jack, ergo missing software feature, ergo USB 2.0 from 23 years ago)
Once again, I'm still trying to figure out how apple users can defend this. Yes, Google maps had this feature, but everytime I talk to apple users I'm always told they got their phone because "it just works!". But then I learn that features I consider basic at best are completely missing. If my iphone should "just work" I expect the features I want to exist without another app installation. Things on iphone only seem to work if you don't know anything better.
I feel like Google has two departments internally, a security research and implementation team and a Google ads team. One of them betters security for all android users and another gets bad press for making bad decisions with YouTube, chrome, or other Google services. I'd love to know how the culture is at Google. It's not like security conflicts with Google data collection practices but I still find out interesting to think about nonetheless
Samsung in terms of security, privacy and hardware is a total mess. I would avoid Samsung products at all costs.
I think part of the "it just works" definition is the default apps should work without missing features, however you're not wrong, alternatives do exist.
Edit: spelling