Shopping around, seems like every option is doubling down on anti-user garbage… I don’t trust myself to do a root or anything like that - my tech skills are juuust good enough to be painfully aware of my own dumbassery, but I’m doubting an out-of-the-box smartphone that isn’t loaded with shit even exists.
Previously I’ve used Pixel and Galaxy, but those are both chief offenders.
Not sure. For the same reason. If I install Graphene and the play integrity check fails, then I lose access to these services. And I’m a bit of a coward in that regard.
I don’t think you’re cowardly. Rather that Google makes it as inconvenient as possible to not use their intrusive services. My (only non-FOSS) banking app luckily works on my custom ROM and sometimes I forget hat might not be the case for some.