everything since then has either been deck chair re-arranging or the slow removal of features we once liked only to have them re-introduced 1-3 years later

Perfectly succinct. I cannot put into words how much I hate this, at this point I am entirely fed-up with Android because of this shit.
Nothing more infuriating than reading what changed on a new version and realizing all they did was move a bunch of shit around and introduce useless """ features""" meanwhile actually useful features for the rest of us who want to use our phones as more than a toy languish on and on (Floating Windows? Multitasking that doesn't suck ass? Desktop mode?)

Reading the update log on new Android versions has been giving me brain damage since Android 9