The top 10 free apps on the App Store, at time of writing, are TikTok, HBO Max, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat, Zoom, Gmail, and Google Maps. Until Gmail, every single one of those provides access to content that can't be accessed thorough another app—a more ethical Snapchat doesn't have any of my Snapchat-using friends, and a more ethical HBO Max doesn't have the movie I want to watch. So no, in practice, the option is to get the app, wherever it's available, or decide to do without whatever it's offering.
YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Google Maps all have good enough experiences using a mobile web browser. You don't need their app to access their content.
