Is there really much difference for most users?
I am 99% sure my note10+ was an exynos and it worked perfectly fine.

This is why I love the New Zealand consumer guarantees act so much.
The retailer is responsible. When you purchase a phone, it has to be fit for its intended purpose and last a reasonable amount of time. Which usually overrides the warranty.
Some retailers contract out the repair to the manufacturer - eg. samsung says to the appliance store “sell our phone to your customers and we will handle the repairs etc for you”. But ultimately its the retailer that is responsible - not the manufacturer.

And our government department has taken retailers to court and won against them when they failed to adhere to the act.

The carriers want a say in the software that goes on the phones.
In exchange for that, the carriers will buy fucktons of phones and promote the hell out of them on their web stores, retail stores and to business accounts.
Big discounts etc.

Samsung likes to sell large numbers of phones. Carrier partnerships are a way to do that.

I just stopped using it. When “tweets” became “excretions”, the quality of the content went the same way.

I find on my s22 ultra its not as good at detecting my thumb print.
I miss the note 8 being able to power on and unlock with just the thumb print