I agree competition is generally a good thing, but microsoft has demonstrated that they can't do it.

Android is open source at least, so the people who give a shit can run a custom ROM that works without google stuff or at least sandboxes it so it can't do anything the user doesn't want it to.

A proper solution would be to mandate that manufacturers ship their phones without proprietary software so that users have to actively make the decision between installing google/apple/manufacturer services and alternatives.

Custom ROMs work that way already, you flash them and then you flash google apps or microG. You could also flash neither of those if you wanted to.

Flashing from recovery has already gotten easy with TWRP, so manufacturers could streamline that to make it foolproof for the initial setup process.

(commenting from another instance since feddit.de is having issues right now, please @ the other account as well if you reply)