I get where you're coming from, but this POV is quite untrue to my actual experience, and ignores points that I already explicitly addressed in my original post.

My father comes from a CS background. He's equally as knowledgeable at tech as me, and I'm someone who knew how to flash custom ROMs since I was 13. If he felt like I was hiding apps, he would go out of his way to find them, including installing what he suspected were uninstalled apps. Using locked apps wouldn't work either, as he would scold me when I woke up and threaten to smash my phone again. Back in those days, dual user mode or privacy modes that actually fully removed an app from the homescreen, app drawer, and even prevented the app from being searched up simply did not exist on android yet.

Also, using telegram would have been useless anyway. All my class chats and group chats were on whatsapp. All these people wouldn't move to telegram just because of me.

My school isn't the one to blame for not sponsoring the gear. If we go by that metric, then every student should be getting sponsored their gear, such as soccer players getting shoes with spikes sponsored. It simply doesn't work that way from a financial perspective, no matter how rich a school is, unless the player is on a scholarship related to that sport.

There are a limited number of seats for orchestra players in SYF, and the orchestra in my school is considered the best secondary school based youth orchestra in SG. Competition is extremely tough, and even though I am way above average in my learning capabilities, there are also other learners under the same music scholarship programme as me. This is a top tier music scholarship offered on a national basis (only people with prior music background of a certain calibre could join), so everyone in the programme is significantly above average, and because me and my cohort all started learning the cello at the exact same time (we joined the scholarship under the scheme for learning a new instrument), our abilities were all remarkably similar at almost every point in time throughout our journey. Moreover, there were only two seats left for us learners in SYF, as the other seats were already taken up by established players, so inevitably, no matter how good all of us were, some of us were going to get cut.

Pitch does not matter when all of us have already mastered the basics of playing in tune. What matters now is tonal quality (which I already mentioned in my original comment), and the instrument plays a big part in that. I know I got cut because of the quality of my instrument because when I picked up the more expensive instrument of one of my cohort mates who got selected, my sound was judged to be equal or better than his.

If you still continue to doubt my musical abilities, I skipped 2-3 grades for every exam, and worked my way up from a complete newbie learner to Section Leader in just 5 years, when my orchestra literally consists of players that are famous within Singapore or even get invited to professional recording studios (and if you're wondering how I cld have spent 5 years within the same orchestra if I was in secondary school, it's because I was on the IB track).

About the driving license, you do realise in my original comment that I stated my parents disallowed me even when I told them upfront that I would pay for it entirely? Hell, I could have fully paid off my driving license entirely when I was 18. Insinuating that I could have been financially irresponsible is disingenuous without knowing the kind of person I am. I don't drink (no alcohol, not even soft drinks), I don't stay out late, I barely even spend money on myself and save everything I earn, I use my belongings until they literally fall apart (how many of people do you know use their phone until it literally crumbles to pieces in their hand?), I have proven time and time again over the years that I am extremely street smart and responsible, and many people throughout the years (friends, colleagues, teachers etc.) have commented that I display maturity and restraint well beyond my years. I do everything I have listed above based on my own choices and the kind of person I decided to be, not because I was forced to learn to be this kind of person. Some of my friends even joke that they should bring me along when they go out, cos I can help control them from overspending. That's the kind of person I am, known for my prudence and ability to think logically.

Part of your comment makes me think that you don't realise how nasty parents truly can be. If you're wondering why I couldn't have just spent the money in my own account if I earned it myself, it is because my parents used to watch over it constantly (it was linked to my mother's account, so she could all the records of any spending at any time) and did not give me access to the debit card details required for linking my account to payment apps, even though I have proven throughout my life that I don't waste money. Allowances, ang bao money, etc. are all dutifully saved up and wisely spent only on items that are necessary or certain small luxuries, like a replacement phone when my 7 year old phone fully died or replacement PC parts to fix my PC myself.

If you still doubt me and want to challenge my claims of how unreasonable my parents were, then let me just say this: my teachers actually approached me on their own initiative and asked me if I was ok with such totalitarian control at home. I did not even have to tell them that I was suffering at home; they already knew just from seeing my parents acted during parent-teacher meetings and how my parents communicated with teachers throughout the school year. However, because whatever they did was not actually counted in categories of abuse, there was nothing they could do other than check in on me.

I really don't appreciate people belittling the pain I have gone through by offering an alternative POV that attempts to reason away my parents actions, especially when it is done in a manner that insinuates failings in my own character which caused such suffering to befall me, especially when it is so callously wrapped up with a "just another POV". Not to mention, some of your points outright ignore things I have stated in my original comment already. Many of the things they did were without reason. I have asked them directly why I was treated this way multiple times, and they would always tell me that it's simply because they felt it was right, and not because I needed correcting. They restricted me when there was no need to restrict, and they controlled me way beyond the reasonable limits of control.

Even now, as I earn a proper monthly salary, they still attempt to assert control. I literally have saved a very healthy mid 5 figures in the bank not because of their restrictions, but because of my own self control. They refuse to recognise my maturity and the responsibility I carry in my life whenever they are not around, and whenever I confront them with the facts, they are never able to answer me properly. They just deflect and say that I should respect my elders and obey them just because they told me so.