Not an American, but I ended up with an iPhone simply because the cost difference between it and an Android device via my carrier wasn't that big. It was also a previous generation model at a steep discount which helped a lot.
I am not a fan of Apple but if a company is going to screw me then at least Apple isn't so in-my-face about it like Google is. Google's data harvesting and ads are absolutely atrocious.
I used Blackberry right up until they ditched BB10. Sometimes I wonder if I should just get a feature phone because modern smartphones are awful things.
It's a bit harder to know what information Apple collects and what they do with it because they're more obscure about it. Unlike Google that immediately sells your information to the lowest bidder to slam ads in your face at every possible opportunity.
The lack of sideloading is indeed a large drawback. I do miss the apps I used to get off F-Droid when I had an Android phone. I've mostly replaced them with, well, nothing. I use my phone less and less as apps, and the internet in general, become more foul and toxic places to be.