There are choices. You don’t like Apple Pay, get an Android phone.
Apple is manufacturing the phones and creating the ecosystem associated to the phone.
Because they manufacture the whole thing, they may get away with it as a hardware feature, which they protect for security and privacy reasons, which is their sales pitch to their customers.
Apple doesn’t sell its OS to other manufacturers.
Google does. And because they do that, they have to let other manufacturers have access to the OS features that manage payments through .
Android phones have been dinged with vulnerabilities through NFC technology.
Microsoft has been dinged with anti-Trust losses because they forced their features on other devices and quenched other manufacturers to do what they wanted. Apple doesn’t deal with other manufacturers. Apple doesn’t force customers to only do Apple Pay for transactions. Sure, it’s a feature they offer, but you can use Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, etc. with your phone. Even Google Pay. Just not with the phone’s hardware. They don’t even force you to use their card to pay.
In fact, Google and Samsung could use the payment system from Apple, if they create a bank and a card. But no, they can’t design software that could create vulnerabilities to Apple devices...and if that’s Apple’s competitive advantage, why should they give it away?
This dude paraded Russian troops during Mexico’s Independence Day. I take what he says with a grain of salt.