Came to see if someone commented on that. I have generally seen Garmin as one of the good ones on several criteria:

- when hit by ransomware, disclosed publicly, bit on the data loss and told them to fsck off

- devices can very much operate without any account, app, or cloud connection (of course you don't get the more advanced "Connect" features)

- plug it in and you have rw access to .FIT files over MTP

- same mechanism to build and sideload apps made with Monkey C

- ANT+ is a fairly open ecosystem (progressively replaced by BLE, often in much less open ways)

I hear that some people are annoyed that devices stop receiving major feature updates after a year or two, and see that as predatory "you must upgrade every year", which is like, ridiculous?

Also in a sense I like that I buy the device and it's mostly "done". Like a mechanical watch it's a utility item I can rely on and it won't ever have a Liquid Ass pulled up on me.