Yes i think that's just a historical anomaly, it's not that different for say, Android versus Windows. Android users will put up with having no or very difficult root access, while if you'd take away adminstrator on Windows people would complain and probably migrate to some other OS.

Phones are seen as "consumer devices" like TVs, set-top boxes (remember EFF "tivoitization" discourse?) and so on. Historically these didn't allow installing custom software at all, and if so, completely controlled by the cable company. Computers are seen as well, computers, which implies a larger degree of freedom.

If it wasn't for the lucky historical anomaly of home computers and the internet, things would be a lot more locked down across the board, probably.