The recent removal of Damus from the Apple AppStore in Hong Kong isn't necessarily a political problem.
Apple created a phone experience so slick that their market share is simply too big and people ultimately don't care about being walled in as long as the experience is smooth.
The root of the problem is:
1) no one else seems to be able to create a comparable phone experience (Android is junk unfortunately),
2) open source / privacy community has tried it several times with Linux etc. but it never works out due to how much money is needed to build a good device.
If the barrier to entry into the phone market was lower, we'd have more competition and less shenanigans like walled gardens. The state could still regulate app stores using traditional legislation but sideloading an alternate app store solves that problem.
TLDR: building a good phone that people like is still expensive and hard.
