ByteWizard

If you're on Debian, it's the tried and true method. The config is dead simple for most upgrades, just un-comment the line in the config file next to the type of upgrades you want, stable or testing. It can take some debugging if you have a package with it's own APT repo. It'll just ignore those updates by default.

unattended-upgrades is annoying? How so?

For Unifi devices you setup a Virtual Network then assign the guests to that. https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000166827-UniFi-Hotspot-Portal-and-Guest-WiFi

Ever hear of the fable "The boy who cried wolf"?

One catch is that you have to assume it's gonna be sending data to China or at least have a hidden backdoor, possibly both. That may not matter depending on what they are doing.

Nope. ATT at the time the iPhone came out didn't have a whitelist. Any unlocked phone with the right radios could be used. Which is why I used ATT for a decade or so. Then the 5G bullshit came out and suddenly ATT wouldn't activate a phone unless they blessed it first. So now I'm on Mint which is way cheaper and I can still use any phone that's compatible. No whitelist.

I had a Windows phone at the time that was vastly more capable. I could use any MP3 I wanted for a ringtone for starters. iPhone couldn't do that. iPhone was a Fisher Price children's toy in comparison.

People don't care. They buy whatever marketing tells them to buy. Lines around the block for the first iPhone when it was vastly inferior to the other phones of the day. Couldn't even use custom ringtones. Knew then that people really are sheep.