I don't get it, how is it different from customizing any other OS, except that Android has many more options to do so than the very-limited iOS? You spend countless hours on your phone, why wouldn't you sit down for an hour to make it suit your needs better if the defaults bother you? I tweaked Nova Launcher on mine, spent an hour or two doing that, what, 8 years ago now? Definitely worth the time.
I very much hate the default Android and iOS experiences. I guess the downside is that making my phone more usable means, well, I actually use it more (i.e., too much).
> Android customization is sort of like junk food - enjoyable in the moment, but
not meaningfully improving your life.
Hard disagree. I assume you have some technical background, that's why you consider it not meaningful. Go speak to someone that knows nothing about it, which is the majority of the people I assume, I'm pretty sure they learn a lot in the way.
That may be true for purely decorative skinning for some people (although personally I enjoy using interfaces more when they have excellent visual design, iconography, layout and consistency). However interface customization can go far beyond aesthetic visuals to adding functions, default behaviors and time-saving shortcuts, improving interface hierarchy and surfacing frequently used options. Another key area is speeding up navigation by hiding unused things and increasing legibility with better UI density and typography. I find these kinds of customizations do meaningfully improve usage efficiency and utility, making a real difference on devices I use constantly.
For instance, taking control of my phone's three physical buttons with custom double-press and long-press actions that are contextual is so useful I can't imagine using a phone without it. I've also added a custom contextual action to double-tapping the back of my phone that I use constantly. This uses the phone's accelerometer and, surprisingly, works perfectly with no false positives. I use my phone a lot for reading e-books, controlling home automation, photography and other use cases where I'm switching between portrait and landscape modes frequently. Customizing automatic screen rotation to be per app, by time of day and even by location is another one of those seemingly little things that's just so nice in constant daily usage.
Some people argue all these things should just be built-in to phones and "it's a bug" the designers didn't just set-up everything "correctly" in the first place. But the reality is people have different innate preferences about some kinds of usage modes and defaults. For example, I'm highly spatial vs my wife who's very sequential. She prefers contextually adaptive "smart" interfaces that change to list the most likely options first. She can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want that. However, my brain expects stuff to be in the same place it was last time and it throws me when things keep moving around. I think this is more than just a preference or learned behavior, it's an innate trait like handedness. While people can force themselves to adapt across this divide, it will always be uncomfortable and slower.
Then there there is the current UX design obsession with "simplifying" interfaces by removing features, reducing density and increasing the remaining spacing and typography sizes to the point of, IMHO, insanity. This is another reason when it comes to devices I'll use constantly, I consciously choose those I can significantly customize and adapt (eg Android, Windows, Linux, Firefox, etc). Of course, I don't customize every use case. What matters is having the option to do so for those usages which make a meaningful difference to me.
