Privacy

Does this remove apps already installled on my device?

Fine, ill go back to dumb phone era. 3310 here i come old buddy.

Buying a phone is not exactly a choice.

The deal can't be altered if there's no Vader in the loop.

Build on hardware you control. Your data stays there. No company in the middle. No terms to change. No altered deal.

I removed the email account from my Google account years ago and I run Graphene, which I hope will weather the storms. This is possible to do by the way. The only thing I still use a google account for is subscriptions. For a while I was able to use FreeTube to get away from that, but it's been shaky at best in the past few months. I should try it again.
The minute there's an alternative to YouTube, a real, meaningful one- which I'm not sure is possible, I'm deleting the google account entirely.

I did NOT buy an Android phone for anything Google, what they have said or anything else. I have one because I got a good deal and I can remove everything Google about it. And this deal gives me a new phone biennially while keeping the same monthly price which means I can give my previous phone to the family member of friend who is most in need of one and would be most affected economically by having to buy one themselves. I'd easily choose and iPhone over an Android one if they were similarly locked, I think Google (Alphabet) is the more evil of the two, while both are of course not good at all. That's not the case though, yet at least.

what's the move? get "ahead" of it and get a Fairphone? I am not entirely sure when the Graphene OS Motorola phones come out and who knows the legal implications that will have.

If you can't swap the package manager it was never open.

Serious question: what's to stop Google from just axing AOSP, and what would that mean for GraphenOS? As a company they seem to have become vindictive and I just feel like as soon as it becomes a big enough thorn in their side they will retaliate.