Not sure why HomePod gets put in your doghouse when its behaving just like any classic Apple product with its walled garden approach. Macs can't run Windows elegantly, Apple TV isn't available as a native app on my Sony TV, iPhone can't run Android apps, HomePod is just more of same. In reading your posts, it seems you don't like The Man telling you what you can and can't listen to or how you can or can't make payments. Apple doesn't seem like a good fit.
As for me, the HomePod is my personal liberator, it finally got me away from physical media including my MP3 collection. I've uploaded all my boots, imports, rarities, obscure pressings up to Apple Music, use my voice to tell Siri what to play, and I don't need any big ol' stereo systems in my life anymore. Apple Music in the home, Apple Music in the car, Apple Music as I travel, it's fantastic. I'm discovering more new music and listening to more old music this way. HomePod + Apple Music has been the best thing to happen to me from a musical standpoint since I bought my first CD player back in 1984.
This isn't a matter of not wanting to be dictated to by Apple, because to some degree we are all dictated to by manufacturers - it's an inescapable part of life. But I have very specific needs from products I buy, and those needs are generally not met by HomePod, despite the fact that I hoped otherwise when it was clear that Apple were planning to open the ecosystem in precisely the way I was in need of.
And they did, and while it was frustrating because Siri is not a competent enough platform to be the sole interface for anything, for a time it worked acceptably and I was quite happy. Then it didn't, and there wasn't a way to find out why not, or what I could try instead.
This is, in itself, an issue with the way Apple implement this technology, because while Amazon provides an app and a web interface to interact with Alexa, initiate commands with taps or clicks, and provide feedback and voice training, Apple don't. For this reason I don't use Siri on my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, CarPlay or anywhere else - for me, Siri just doesn't work at all well, and there isn't an option to help improve that. But while I can use everything else more than satisfactorily without Siri, of course there isn't a choice with HomePod.
In the broader sense, it isn't a simple question of 'the walled garden', because Homepod's garden is tiny and narrow, while every other Apple product in the ecosystem has access to a much broader resource of services and systems, so no, HomePod is anything but 'more of the same'. If it were, either everything else Apple touches would be failing because they're hopeless, or more probably, HomePod would be flourishing, because Apple's vision in the wider sense is generally excellent.
I didn't doubt for one minute after reading prior posts of yours in this thread that you find HomePod a great success, and that's excellent - I'm pleased for you. In how you describe it, you are pretty much their perfect HomePod customer, and for them, and for you, that is also excellent.
But, that isn't how it has worked for Apple and the broader customer base - otherwise HomePod would not have been discontinued without a followup product ready to launch. And it isn't how it worked for me either, sad to say. And characterising anyone who has problems adopting a technology as being the problem themselves rather than that the technology simply doesn't work appropriately for them is not a great help.
