"if people choose to pay their way into a walled garden, why should they still care about hardware ownership/repairabilty, etc.?"
I don't like the walled garden but i still brought a iPhone because iPhones get updates for really long time(3 years minimum). Iphone SE(1st gen) released in 2016 got the iOS14 update.
I'm in the same boat as well :) . I keep a mac laptop for work/consulting stuff and otherwise have a linux box and several rpi's for my linux hacking hobbies :)
I don't like the walled garden but i still brought a iPhone because iPhones get updates for really long time(3 years minimum). Iphone SE(1st gen) released in 2016 got the iOS14 update.