I received a regular android phone recently. It has modern hardware which I would never buy for myself due to it’s incompatible to open bootloader/firmware.
The only phone I would like to buy are Pixels either to use GrapheneOS for privacy/security or LineageOS for root privilege.
However, even such a phone with stock ROM can has its use case in my hand. It works well as an iPhone alternative for low key life activities, or gray man strategy if you prefer that terminology.
In the end, you don’t want to be weird/paranoid in front of the public/authority. Whether you like it or not, having a normal lifestyle or at least knowing how to live normally is necessary to pass any checkpoint/scrutiny in today’s world.
The first step to make this phone usable (unfuck the vendor’s fuckery) is to debloat all sorts of pre-installed shitwares (including adware, bloatware, spyware…), since they are either slowing me down or spying on my data thanks to the latest AI trend.
Rikka’s Shizuku is the foundation of everything I need, providing a semi-root environment without scare the crap out of those sensitive apps.
Either Canta or Hail would do the job (and they have same limitation on removing persistent apps), refer to this guide to use both together in some unsure cases.
I also use PhoneProfilesPlus with PPPE and PPPS as open source alternative to Tasker, and ShizuWall to AFWall+/RethinkDNS for stopping data collection by those system apps unable to be removed/disabled.
For convenience, Droid-ify is an F-Droid fork with IzzyOnDroid’s repo enabled by default with many pre-loaded 3rd party repos, which allow me to download different browsers.
To prevent data collection from typing on stock virtual keyboard, I use fcitx5 instead of Trime for its great out-of-the-box experience.
There are a lot more tools to play with such as Xposed framework, AppOps, Device Owner and AppLock. They can be useful in some cases, but if without GrapheneOS, I don’t want to bother.