Well, I hate to admit it, because I am an ex-iOS user that ran away from it because of the closed ecosystem, but seeing that it keeps aggregating the absolute best applications, even from Google, and with the goodness everyone feels is coming from the Ive-influenced iOS 7, I might have to fall back into the walled garden.
Not sure what you mean by "absolute best applications" since the app on ios is fundamentally limited by the APIs that are provided by the OS. I agree that ios has some of the better apps but I don't think presence of Google Now on ios is better then that on Android.
As someone who has used all three major platforms extensively, I think I could shed some light on this.
iOS has the "absolute best apps" because of the level of polish, design, and near-pixel-perfect elements visible in the apps. I've used Android for years (SGS2 and Nexus 7) and many of the apps are poorly designed and have even poorer implementations. Many of them feel like they are just 5 standard UI widgets put together on the screen is just bland. This can be seen by how many Android applications use Holo but don't try to give it their own personality. Small changes to the UI can lead to a personalized and tailored/polished feel (Starbuck's green standard navbar, Netflix's logo on their own red navbar, etc). Also, iOS apps seem to experiment more with gestures and UX concepts. Using apps like Clear, Google Maps, Haze, etc. really shows you how well thought out an app could be. It just seems like many of Android's apps look the exact same and lack that attention to detail, I guess.
Also, please remember that "more powerful" doesn't correlate to "best." I would rate Clear much, much higher than most Android apps. While it doesn't allows me to access the root filesystem, overclock the CPU, or alter the boot image, it's extremely intuitive, attractive, and works beautifully.
What you describe is precisely the sort of thing I dislike in mobile apps. On a (non-Windows) desktop, no one would dare do such crazy, confusing things.
These "crazy, confusing things" these mobile app devs are trying are expanding the way we use applications. Making apps gesture-based has lead Google Maps (for iOS), Clear, and even Facebook (swipe down closes image) to have much more intuitive UIs. I'm much happier that developers are experimenting with improved UX experiences rather than just trusting the designs Google or Apple decided on.
Gestures are of debatable utility of course, I often find some of them useful. There are only two problems: 1) not discoverable and 2) overlap with system gestures. The latter is particularly annoying when websites do it.
The part I have a problem with is the wildly different-looking and different-functioning buttons, lists, menus and so on. If they had exercised some restraint and only applied a minimal colour-only theme, I could figure out what their UI does after just looking at it.
What makes you think Android apps have unfettered access to the OS? Android's sandbox and permission system is pretty sophisticated and whenever you want install an app you can see exactly what it's allowed to do and then decide whether you actually want to install it.
Are you saying you can't get work done unless some third party makes those decisions for you?
Apple is really good at this stuff.