IMO it's almost certain that Valve will go the same way as all the other big gaming and tech companies as soon as Gabe is no longer involved. I would like to believe they're immune to enshittification but I can't.
An actual open phone system similar to the openness and hardware support of desktop Linux is a better next step than Valve worship.
governments, companies and NGOs would come up with a standard for interoperability. Everyone that participates benefits
Are you thinking of a different Apple? We're all thinking of the one that does everything they can to lock their users into the Apple way of doing things and considers interoperability to be a four letter word.
Don't spend iPhone money on an Android. Definitely don't on a Samsung unless you like having both Google and Samsung's versions of basic applications such as phone, messages, calendar, browser etc.
Because there's no global list of what will and won't work so no way to know if Mint will be overall better or worse and I am completely disinterested in distrohopping.
Yeah I think that's probably the most common attitude amongst people comfortable with Linux but it's not helpful for the "just install Linux" movement.
I haven't run Linux for probably 20 years until last week when I replaced my windows 10 with Tumbleweed. It's definitely better than I remember for driver compatibility but it's still not good enough for a general windows replacement.
Videos don't play without hiccups, sometimes my keyboard and mouse don't work when the PC wakes up and I needed to install Mint in distrobox to get some software working.
Also people have been trained to troubleshoot by clicking and Linux still mostly demands troubleshooting via the terminal and that's a deal breaker for many people.
I think you're quite confused about what an operating system actually is.