> Apple is quietly but surely increasing its control on macOS.
This is certainly happening. However, as long as you can still install your preferred browser with its own rendering engine or a different PDF reader, the situation isn't so bad.
I'm getting great mileage out of LibreWolf on macOS (currently running Sequoia). I don't know who at Apple thought it was a great idea to permanently kill off ad blockers in Safari, but it was a terrible idea that made the world a worse place.
Of course I say macOS is getting along fine for me, but I'm posting this comment from my workstation PC running Ubuntu 24.04. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much better my Linux experience is now than it was in 2013. It seems from my personal experience so far like a free desktop OS that can run a web browser and play games better than the paid alternatives is a solved problem. I find this machine much less frustrating than my M4 Macbook Air- many of the "security" behaviors are just annoyances.
This is certainly happening. However, as long as you can still install your preferred browser with its own rendering engine or a different PDF reader, the situation isn't so bad.