The Bliss launcher main screen with all the icons spread across was a deliberate choice. Ever tried explaining how to use a smartphone to a non technical person? Try explaing how to access notifications, swipe down to see the messages, or swipe up to see all the applications and see how it goes. I have tried explaining these steps over the phone with some of my older relatives and failed miserably. Finally had to call up some of my younger cousins to go over to their house and show them how it is done. The all icons on the main screen does irritate some of Android fans but it is actually easy for non technical folks to understand.
As far as IOS is concerned, in India the iPhone users are a very small group. Personally I have never used and guess seen an iPhone only one or twice. The beauty of android is you can install a launcher or application of your choice and use it as the default. No one is forcing you to stick with the default applications. While the team is making changes to the Launcher code, I believe the basic design with ‘all icons on the screen’ will remain. /e/OS has always been targetted at the non technical user.
On the horizontal scroll vs verticall scroll argument. If I remember correctly this horizontal scroll came with Pie but was not implemented on /e/OS initially. I clearly remember one of our regular user raised an issue in Gitlab and was very angry why it was not working on /e/OS. In fact he eventually left the forum and stopped using /e/OS. The non availabilty of the horizontal scroll was one of the reasons! Not sure we will ever be able to please everyone. But then you do not need to do that with Android. If you are using /e/OS and do not like a specific application you can select an app of your choice and use it.