The problem is not that people are buying this willingly, it's because they don't know. If you present them two rougly similar options, but one of them is a spying machine, people will choose the other one. This stuff should not be legal in the first place.

That's true, but the law should be the first line of defence against practices like this - you can't expect every person to do thorough research on every appliance they buy.

This is what I did and do not regret a thing. It takes a few weeks to get used to (especially when coming from iOS), but once you find good open source replacements for daily apps, there's no going back. The only thing I miss is Apple Pay, but using regular card again is not a huge deal.