No, you buy the phone hardware and a license to use iOS. The App Store is a service provided by Apple that you should have a choice to use or not. The Apple Tax is what you're 'buying' from Apple when using the App Store service.

This is not accurate. I never "buy" a license explicitly. I buy the phone explicitly.

I can't "buy" iOS and put it on any phone. The phone and software are inextricably linked. It is one product.

> The App Store is a service provided by Apple that you should have a choice to use or not. The Apple Tax is what you're 'buying' from Apple when using the App Store service.

You can extend this to any level. This is like complaining "I don't want to use Amazon to buy things on Amazon.com"