I don’t consider it bloat. Bloat is preinstalled games or adware, not useful services. Everything preinstalled besides Samsung’s stuff was removable, and all of that at least does have a use, and works for what it’s supposed to do.

• Browser is a browser. It functions as such for people who don’t care about which browser they’re using.
• Note taking app does what it says on the tin.
• messaging app is the SMS app. It didn’t come with another one, I installed the one from Google myself for RCS.
• Samsung TV Plus is actually for watching TV networks, and it’s free. Works decently even.
• smart things is useful for anyone who has Samsung iot devices. The oven in the house I rent actually is one, which was funny to me.
• HP printing might have actually been one I added… For my HP network printer.

All of that aside, my Z Fold 4 is plenty powerful such that I never experience lagging or slowdowns. My battery rarely goes below 50% with 4-5 hours of screen on time daily. So if there’s background stuff, it’s not affecting either of the things you would expect it to.

The launcher is fine. No “news section” off to the side like the old Pixel launcher used to have, no frills or extras or adware in your face… it’s fine. The only complaint I have about the launcher is that I can’t make my app drawer continuously scroll. However, it provides the service for the ‘taskbar’ at the bottom of my screen: Image and I use it a lot for multitasking so I can’t get rid of it.

Honestly, from my perspective none of it is problematic. It sounds to me like you’re just hating on something to hate on it, none of those extra things being installed cause me any inconvenience. In the slightest.

Calling someone’s opinion on such a subjective matter invalid really speaks to your thoughts on other people. Are you ok? Need to talk about it?