To be fair to the author, the only other option (iPhone) doesn't even let you disable the bloatware or replace it with better alternatives. Recent Android phones (including the author's) install most of the bloatware from the Play Store on first use instead of storing them in the system partition with the OS, so you actually can remove them.
You can "delete" many default apps on recent versions of iOS. (It doesn't actually delete them, it just hides them — the same as disabling an app on Android).
I don't think that document is entirely accurate. The apps "re-download" immediately, suggesting (to me at least) that they are still on-disk, somewhere. I believe that they delete associated user-data, though.
EDIT: Apparently things are different in iOS 11? Huh. TIL —
will have to try it out!
"One note on removing pre-installed apps: Don't do this if you need to free up some storage space on your iPhone or iPad. Because stock apps are part of the system bundle — some of them are deeply integrated with Siri, in fact — when you delete them, they aren't actually removed — they're just being hidden from the home screen."
Notably missing from the list of disableable apps: Safari and (for the author) Photos.
