Sounds like what Apple is trying to do...

Yeah, although sadly Apple isn't quite the good guy either. I feel like in a way instead of ads they use their walled garden approach to achieve a similar result.

They'll make it really annoying or even impossible to use alternatives and mix things. This way they you are by design drawn to use their desired solutions.

Does make for a better user experience as long as you pay the price and play by their rules. And probably also better for privacy, because with the closed system approach they don't need the data as much to target you.

But imo still problematic and Apple doesn't want to just sell good Hardware, but also services.

Unfortunately I think without some kind of regulation that makes personal info a liability / hot potato, it will still be treated as an asset to be collected:(

Agreed, this is one of those problems where it is much easier to legislate from the top down, rather than trying to get each individual consumer to make fully conscious decisions.