They control the ecosystem in the way that they provide what hardware is new on MacOS and what capabilities it has. So if any developer wants to support modern devices they have to port to that new hardware. They don’t have any choice, if they want to stay relevant.

Remux or straight Bluray. But Remuxes are always your best choice, if you don’t need any of the extra content.

If you don’t need any of the Pi specific features. Then buy a sbc from another brand. You get way more for your money and more features