Well, for me the difference is that a fucking smartphone is something I do not want to invest even minutes in to tinker with.
And Apple's control isn't required to achieve that. You can use an Android phone as if it were an iPhone and have a very similar experience. It's true that the UI isn't quite as polished, but that's orthogonal to being open.
Android is much more open, yes. But then you (or at least the majority of users) will have Google inhaling all of your data day and night. Google will see what you search for and what you mail to whom and which maps you look at and what your calendar contains...
If you're using Google's services, they see that regardless of what OS you're running. And there's no requirement to use their services with Android. Granted, they do make it easy to do so.