What you're describing isn't spyware though.

I'm not dying on this hill because at a point it would just be quibbling over semantics. Your point isn't wrong - I know there are options built into OSes that can be used to monitor user behaviour - but this isn't spyware in the same way backdooring shit into android would be

No argument that the end result is pretty similar - but one requires exploits to get some shit on the phone. The other is innate to the OS.