Many Android devices are unlockable, you can run your own software, and yet we still have a problem. This problem exists irrespective of what you can technically do with the hardware due to the vote by corporations to favour device "security" over user freedom. A phone is useless to most people without the apps they depend on.

I literally can't unlock my device (Xiaomi) because there's no way to, despite that it's apparently the law in Germany that GPLv2 software cannot be Tivoized because "corresponding source" was interpreted to include everything you need to install modified software on the device. (AVM vs I don't remember, regarding fritz!box home routers)