Just pure greed on Samsung and the provider’s part: why would there be an SD slot for an SD card if not to expand storage? Then when someone comes up with a workaround they patch it. It is not just Android. My mother has a hand me down iPhone from another region. It is the max storage variant, but for some reason, she cannot use it. Her only workaround is to pay Apple $5 a month to allow it to sync with iCloud. Since it is $5, it does not have any iCloud membership features.
Yes, I am closer to going in the open OS direction, but I worry that it will not be compatible or something bad happens midway. So frustrating. I have not found a job yet. I almost got a temp high paying one (more importantly, low/mid-management, which would have been great on my resume!), but for an inequitable reason I was not hired even though my assessment was successful. So, I cannot just buy a new phone. I could play the delete game forever but sooner rather than later even the bare bone apps will grow beyond the 16 GB. And then I will have no choice. Having low storage also makes the system lag and unstable.