We'll always need safety rails, I think the thing you're missing in most of the arguments you're seeing here is that people want ways over or around those safety rails, and that those safety rails do not need to be as strict as they're becoming. That is not the case currently and that is definitely not the direction AOSP or iOS are interested in going.

Also, just for the record, comparing the modern era of computing to the limewire era is bananas.

they are crawling with malware today, from the factory, except it is harder to remove, especially on smartphones.

safety rails are not steal walls. instead of walls education is needed. education can happen not only in schools.

Most Android phone owners don't even know they are Android phone owners.

Don't hide it. That's pointless. Make it so someone has to type "I understand what I'm doing and my username is blah" into a box to activate "advanced" mode, after reading a warning, sure.