that's all i see as well: self surveillance. when I read other comments like "the family in this ad is exactly like mine" or "oh if it had app store access then itd be great" it makes me think of that scott alexander essay "i can tolerate anything except the outgroup" where he makes the analogy of living side by side with people who exist in entirely separate and impenetrable social bubbles, like light and dark matter.

That's exactly why it needs to be Apple. You can lock this thing down to your LAN and firewall everything off and it will still function. Try that with any google device.