implemented measures to prevent rooting/customization
This part isn't true. Google Pixels (just like Nexus) are the only Androids out there (other than Fairphone) that allow you to sign and re-lock the bootloader after installing Calyx or Graphene. And you can even install Graphene using webUSB now.
That said, I agree on the rest. While Apple was adding CardDAV and CalDAV, true NFC support, shortcuts, and SMB, Androids were dumbing-down its interface, and removing the 3.5mm jack and the dedicated fingerprint scanners.
Now iPhones have USB C, and iOS will be getting sideloading. All I have left to miss is the back button, notification panel, GBoard, and ability to turn off blocking animations.
Android alienated its power users to (fail) to court iPhone users, while Apple successfully did the opposite, courting power users. It's worse recent sins are removing force-touch and the SIM slot.
Yep. Jailbreakers got us the first app store. Before that, Jobs wanted every "app" to be a webapp :(