It won't help to download apps on an iPhone, which, I must say, isn't even yours: you don't get to decide which apps you can install on your phone. Apple gets to decide. Factually speaking you're merely renting the iPhonefrom Apple, which, being the device owner, decides the terms under which you can use it.

In practice this distinction is meaningless. In fact I trust Apple more than my own government. To take your argument to an absurd logical conclusion, I don’t own ANYTHING because my government can take it.

It is known that Apple would do quite a lot of what governments will ask of it. It removes app from national AppStores on a simple request from countries like China or Russia. (Well, now Apple might ignore Russian takedown requests, but prior to the war with Ukraine they were very receptive to their demands)

This is why side-loading and the option for alternative app stores is so crucial. If Apple bans Signal or other E2EE messenger apps from your national app store, you can't get them. Full stop.

If people in China and other privacy-hostile countries can side-load from alternative app stores (like F-droid for Android), the government/Apple doesn't control user access to particular undesireable apps.

There's obviously reverse concerns to this side of the coin but the overall concept has arguably always existed eith jailbreaking (Cydia store, AltStore(?)) and I haven't heard any stories about people becoming massively compromised in the way all the naysayers and Apple would have us believe.

In rule of law countries there is a legal framework for the government taking things which involves processes that are generally voted on.

We cannot say the same for Apple.

Laws voted on by elected officials like Ted Cruz, MTG, Boebert. I trust Tim Cook over any of those.

Never heard of Civil Forfeiture, eh?

Ya, and amazingly enough it's a written law.