Yes, its a nightmare because Android is becoming more and more like iOS: anything that the user used to be able to do... they can no longer do.

Android phone manufacturers want $1200 for something that is a toy, just like the Apple iToys.

Nobody wants those, and nobody wants this. Google needs to get out of the business and let the FOSS community handle it.

To be fair, they are doing with a Samsung phone, and Samsung is the Apple of Android (Big marketing budget, mid quality if we are being generous).

Samsung as a company is a universal No Buy. The fact OP bought Samsung makes me raise an eyebrow.

Credit to Apple where credit is due. When I unboxed my first iphone, I was happy to give Apple all my personal information, birthday, emails, ssn.... It was bizarre, I'm usually apprehensive to give this stuff away, but Apple made it fun. Within a few days, I was disappointed by a lack of widgets, slow transitions between screens, and a buggy podcast app. But the damage was done, my company was out $600 and Apple had my contact info.

A Samsung phone. I've owned several (not Samsung) Android phones, and have never had to deal with such nonsense.

My personal experience is that the setup procedure wildly depends on the phone's vendor.

The biggest difference between setting up a Pixel and an iPhone I experienced was that Google asked for certain settings beforehand that I had to turn off in the settings after setup on iOS. Both would've been a lot faster if I hadn't tried to disable optional account stuff.

Contrast that to Samsung, especially their non-flagship models, where the setup wizard took forever because of the crap Samsung added to the process.

That said, I do appreciate some "tutorial" parts of the setup process on Android. When I first set up an iPhone, I got the distinct impression that Apple assumed I already knew how to do everything. Their interface isn't exactly intuitive if you haven't used iOS before, no matter what online forums may claim. It took me several tries and a Google search to figure out how to remove apps, for instance. Perhaps one might find it an annoying extra step you're going to skip as a power user who's used to the platform, but it felt strange to be dropped into a strange, new operating environment with no instructions.

It's pick-your-poison. iPhone setup is eight hundred screens, half of which are upsells for Apple services, but at least it's only Apple services. Android setup, if you're not on a Pixel, is an invitation for the vendor's dozens of "partners" to all get your money and all your data.

This article is a disaster. Beyond logging into your Google account nothing they described in the article is required to set up an Android phone.