r/iOSgaming may help you out. Lots of good games and suggestions and many aren’t subscription/PTW. You will need to pay up front though.

(Far to many people complain about subscriptions but then also complain that the app isn’t free or has ads.)

Productivity apps are definitely a hell scape of overpriced subscriptions though. I will not argue that.

I think this is one of those things where people get to air their grievances with iPhone while not actually saying “I personally think (whatever) is terrible.”. They won’t get flamed as bad in the comments because they’re not saying it. They’re saying “It’s what Steve would have wanted.”

Steve was neurotic about certain specific things and it’s impossible to know what would have triggered him in the later iterations of Apple products.