was this not allowed before?

Ahh Apple, the first to introduce what Android users have simply taken for granted

iPhone just feels so unintuitive after using Android. Their UI absolutely sucks in my opinion.

Try Mac OS next lol. "Here, hold down alt, smack your left ass cheek, and tap dance around your computer to run this unsigned executable". It really feels like they're deliberately violating the principle of discoverability to stop your from doing things that they don't like.
- They already just prevent you from doing things that they don't like.
  Try installing an older app, it just gives the error that the app is too old.
  
  That's ageist. We should sue them.
  
  Technically, Android does that, too, but the limit on that is a few years. If I'm not mistaken, the lowest version of Android that Google will allow a user to install through the Play Store is Android 12 (released in September 2020).
- After 3 years of using MacOS as a main OS, I am more than convinced it was indeed the intention.
- You can't even cut/paste in Mac OS without using your mouse and modifier keys. Like, seriously? Also, it's 2024 and they still don't have window snapping. Like what the fuck, Tim Apple?
  
  You can tho? You can use arrow keys to move around the text, and hold down control to move by entire words in most apps. CMD + C to copy and CMD + V to paste (CMD is what they call the super key). But yeah, they're trying to push a pointer-centric design that nobody really wants instead of putting the keyboard first.
  
  That's copy/paste. There is no cut command in Mac AFAIK. There's only the move command, which requires an additional modifier when pasting. If there's a key combo for that modifier, then I would like to know what it is. The only way I know how to do it is with the context menu from right clicking and the modifier key. But still, why do they do it differently than every other operating system?
  
  Because they are smarter than you, and know what you need better than you do, duh!
  
  Cut is just Command + X. You can swap in Command for most of the windows shortcuts that use control. Why didn't Apple just use the Control button for Control things? That I do not know.
  
  You could also just right click though /shrug
- I'm a Windows user, but my church uses a Mac to run its projection and video recording. I'll admit it works pretty well for what we typically need it to do, but it recently took me like five minutes to figure out how to crop a picture because you apparently can't do that by simply opening the file and clicking the crop icon.
  Mac's filesystem is an absolute mess, too. This might just be my own inexperience, but I've saved things like PowerPoints and videos in order to upload them, and then I'll go to the website to upload them, and I won't be able to find them because they're not in a specific folder or something.
I picked up an iPhone several years ago, I think a 6 or 6s? Anyways, I tried to use it for a while, because I work in IT and sometimes need to support people on their iPhone, and being an Android person, I had no idea what I was doing.
I could not stand it. Everything took so much more effort. I never got rid of my android, I just tried to use the iPhone whenever possible to familiarize myself with the apple way of doing things. I hated some of the layouts, I missed the back button... Even something as simple as copy/paste just seemed a lot more cumbersome for no good reason.
I learned a lot about it and where options and such were located (which is what I primarily needed) then I simply used it a bit less and less all the time until I finally stopped using it entirely. I have no idea where it is at this point, but I'm sure it still works and I'm sure I would still hate it. I've wanted to retry the experiment with a newer device like the X or 11 or something, but anytime I consider it, I just think back on my experience and unless I can pick up a relatively modern iPhone for next to nothing, I'm pretty uninterested in trying again. I know iOS has had a lot of updates in the past few years since I used one and maybe it sucks less? But I'm not willing to sacrifice my sanity to figure it out.
I don't mean to hate on iOS or iPhones. I certainly don't like them, but if that's what works for you, then go ham. I find it cumbersome and restrictive, and you're free to disagree and use whatever you like; don't let me stop you.
Right? I gotta use an iPad at work now and where the FUCK is the back button!?!? I'm so tired of mashing the home button. It's cool AF that my stylus will put text specifically where I write it though, and it translates my cursive!

You would think that. But as a person having an iPhone... No it is not. At least the part of iPhones currently not having that option. App-Icons on your "desktop" will always align in dense rows from top left to bottom right, with no free spaces allowed.

It is a bit weird, and I don't really see why, since you can change the order of icons in this dense row-grid. I am glad Apple warms up to the fact that people might actually want some kind of customization on their devices and not everything "the way Apple decrees it".

But to be really honest... I did not even notice prior to this post, and I had all Android before switching to my current iPhone. So at least for me this is a really small non-issue, and maybe a nice-to-have feature.

I had an iPad for a while and it definitely bothered me. Really just about everything did. It felt like I had to fight with it to do just about anything I wanted to do.
- Well, the issue is just that you're not thinking with the Apple mindset. If you're having difficulty doing something through an Apple product, it really just means you were trying to do the wrong thing in the first place. Where Apple products really excel is in their integration, both between software and hardware, and between separate devices through iCloud servihahahaha I'm just messing with you but can you imagine some fanboy actually typing out shit like this?
  
  It is not Apple that doesn't allow for any customization, it are the users who are wrong.
  Principal Skinners
  
  Well, the issue is just that you’re not thinking with the Apple mindset. If you’re having difficulty doing something through an Apple product, it really just means you were trying to do the wrong thing in the first place.
  Lol. That was exactly my take as well. Which is why after a few months of battling my new Apple laptop, I went to buy a generic PC lappie, slapped KDE on it and never looked back (this was a while back).
I was going to mention this. You can move them around; but you can't move them anywhere you want. The icons will always be, as you say, in a dense grid of rows with no "blank" spaces between the icons.
I don't know if the OP is true or satire or some kind of April fools thing, but it's still accurate.
This remind me when in the 1980's Cup Holders were introduced in Dodge Caravans, but most cars they expected you to buy this and clip it onto the inside window the story https://historygarage.com/essential-evolution-handy-cup-holder/ e. 1980's

It's Apple, their entire business model is making their tech as restrictive as possible and stripping away as much freedom as they legally can. You can't name a company more power-hungry.

When everything = one of two.

It can

Its Apple. Control first, everything else third.

I had an iPhone before this Android I have now, and you could definitely put icons wherever you wanted on the home screen.