stock android apps have sensible default permissions and are modifiable, e.g. clock does not have unmodifiable access to every aspect of your phone. clearer?

If you cannot replace the software on the Black Shark with alternatives without possibly bricking the phone, I would say that's a substantial deviation from the norm where most other devices have unlockable bootloaders and Rom support using LineageOS.

A run of the mill iphone is much worse in that regard.