That's an interestingly spun perspective. So you're asking for Apple to produce an open source ecosystem around their hardware and OS, while simultaneously refusing to use the products of the company that did?
No devices are "forced" to use "Android type hardware / Android OS". They use it because it's free. That's... important. Right?
Android isn’t “free” in the FOSS or Beer sense of the word.
The important bits (hardware drivers and core applications) aren’t open source (AOSP doesn’t include the new default apps or standard libraries.
Also, the important stuff is tied to google services that spy on you.
I think it’s completely reasonable to reject that stack, and lament that no one offers a high quality, supported alternative software stack at a reasonable price.
No devices are "forced" to use "Android type hardware / Android OS". They use it because it's free. That's... important. Right?