Have you tried Narjo as an alternative client?

You can have a second or third VPN active if you use a work profile and private space

You still have the same things on android. If an android app requests eg exact location it can refuse to run and there’s nothing you can do. That sort of behaviour is prohibited on iOS and an app won’t be approved if it does that sort of thing. They have to allow declining location permission or at least approximate location

Not sure I understand. So you're saying that a bad app on Android can request all permissions and tell you that it will refuse to run unless you give them, and the same app would be declined on iOS?

I could agree with that, Apple is more picky. Now personally, if an app does that, I uninstall it.

But technically, the Android rules are that you shouldn't do that, and when you request a permission you need to explain to the user why you request it.

It's not their own phone. It's an OEM phone that will be supported by GrapheneOS by flashing it. Once you do it, there's no reason to believe it wont have the same play integrity issues that it currently has on pixel devices.

No they don't. The current releases for android and iOS both use file based encryption on most supported phones.

A chargeback can be started in minutes.

It has a stable interface on top of Linux, which desktop linux does not have.

Android is not backward compatible. Many old apps are crashing or refuse to work on newer Androids.

Most of them aren't though. Significantly more old games work on Android than they do on Linux desktop distros.

This is why everyone is dropping Linux support and targeting Proton instead.

The only time I've seen old Android games stop working is when they use native 32bit libraries and most Android devices are now unable to run them.

Other than that Android backwards compatibility has been quite good, much better than Desktop Linux anyway!

Given that their OS requires a pixel phone and google is not releasing a) updated drivers b) updated source code for the latest release

their days are indeed numbered.

As for not being a certified android device and being unaffected. That is not true. There will be chilling effects that result in much less FOSS app development for Android, and whether or not an OS is certified is irrelevant in that regard.