Fair. I see your angle now. 100% with you.

>Why isn't there a popular Android fork which runs all the same apps but provides a better permissions model or greater visibility into what apps are doing?

Besides every possible attempt being DoA because Google is intent on monopolizing the space with their TOS and OEM terms? There isn't a fork because it can't be Android if you do that sort of thing, and if you tried to it'd be you vs. Google. Nevermind the bloody rats nest of intentional one-sided architecture decisions done to ensure the modern smartphone is first and foremost a consumption device instead of a usable and configurable tool, which includes things like regulations around the base and processor, lawful interception/MITM capability, and meddling, as you mentioned, in the name of DMCA 1201.

Though there's an even more subtle reason why, too, and it's the lack of accessible system developer documentation, capability to write custom firmware, and architecture documentation. It's all NDA locked IP, and completely blobbed.

The will is there amongst people to support things, but the legal power edifice has constructed intentional info asymmetries in order to keep the majority of the population under some semblance of controlled behavior through the shaping of the legal landscape and incentive structures.