That isn't really much better, except that Apples ad network is smaller than googles perhaps?

Apple is also an advertising company.

Google makes almost all their income from ads. Apple makes almost none.

Apple purposefully leverages its closed ecosystem to generate social friction amongst kids in order to drive hardware sales, making them persona non grata in my book.

I guess you have to pick your poison, then.

No you don't. You could also simply not drink the poison.

If they were truly poison, yes. But it’s a figure of speech.

I prefer Apple because it’s not nearly as bad. And I like having a phone and laptop.

Apple doesn't see any of your location data when it comes to Find My.

It's usually end-to-end encrypted.

Does Apple have a children's version of their smartwatch? I was not aware of that.

As mentioned by others in this discussion, Apple does have a way to limit the functionality of an Apple Watch, as outlined: https://support.apple.com/en-us/109036

You can do similar things with an iPhone or iPad. Turn off all kinds of stuff entirely, require a request (comes through in the parent’s phone) to override. No Web browsing without asking? Done. No installing apps without asking? Done. Web browsing allowed, but allow-list only? Done. Allow some app, but max one hour per day? Done. Lots of stuff.

No, but there are several settings you can enable to make them more kid-friendly (including app limits and school hours)