You still have the same things on android. If an android app requests eg exact location it can refuse to run and there’s nothing you can do. That sort of behaviour is prohibited on iOS and an app won’t be approved if it does that sort of thing. They have to allow declining location permission or at least approximate location

Not sure I understand. So you're saying that a bad app on Android can request all permissions and tell you that it will refuse to run unless you give them, and the same app would be declined on iOS?

I could agree with that, Apple is more picky. Now personally, if an app does that, I uninstall it.

But technically, the Android rules are that you shouldn't do that, and when you request a permission you need to explain to the user why you request it.

It was there for the launch of the App Store with iOS. They didn’t have to worry about backward compatibility, because they took the time to worry about user privacy and app developer overreach from the very start.

A difference is also that Apple has 100% control over the hardware and can enforce their updates much better than Android.

Android has to deal with tons of devices, and allow developers to update their tooling while supporting older devices. I actually find it quite impressive how they manage to do that. Must be difficult.

All the more reason to get the design right out of the gate, instead of throwing something out there and hoping to fix it later. Especially something so fundamental, like privacy.