I don't think Apple allows you to do this.

I even tried to uninstall and reinstall Damus, hoping it will “take over” the custom protocol.

Tried that. It didn’t work.

My next phone won’t be an Apple.

Yep, this is where I was at half a year ago after only owning iPhones for about 15 years. I switched to GrapheneOS and I've never been happier. The last straw for me was watching Apple attack PWAs at a moment when I was attempting to build free and open mobile app stores (powered by PWAs).

I think that's the golden rule for every occasion when you use an iPhone. Appleland would be a dictatorship if it was a country.

Delete the ZBD app and delete Apple later

Sadly true. At least primal links should open

What’s wrong with ZBD?