I use GrapheneOS and NextDNS. And NoScript. There's some overkill there but I figure why not.
To your question, GrapheneOS has put a lot of thought into features like sandboxing Google Play services so you can choose to use none/some/all depending on your preference. I would think that's probably a smoother experience than trying to block google services selectively via NextDNS. GrapeheneOS also makes it easier to manage per-app permissions and security features.
My old phone was a redmi note 10 pro with power button sensor and I did find it more accurate than my current pixel 7a under screen sensor. But it hasn't been a deal breaker for me
The Mirror website is cancer. I use NoScript and it won't load without allowing about 50 fuckkng scripts. MSN too. I avoid both but occasionally click on a link from elsewhere
Really? I shouldn't be surprised but that's depressing. I'm happy to pay for good apps mind
Thing is, there actually are some good basic apps out there. Things like pomodoro timers with no ads or tracking. Super basic but useful, and hard yobfind because they get buried below other 'slick' versions stuffed with ads and trackers.
I just went through this trying to transfer 23GB of music samples - tens of thousands of files in nested folders - to an Android phone to use with Koala Sampler. Tried USB, KDE Connect, Onedrive, all failed at some point, couldn't handle merging, or some other problem. Syncthing was the answer and it was pretty quick too.
On Android, Mull offers more extensions, unless that's changed recently
You didn't specify open source so I'll post a mixture...
GrayJay (YouTube and other streaming video) RiMusic (YT music streamer) Easy Noise (white noise for sleeping) Peristyle (wallpaper changer)
Level playing fields for women and girls aren't served by allowing competition from people who haven't always been female. Its not fair on cis women to have to compete against people who've had advantages from going through puberty while male.
The purpose of women's sport isn't to be inclusive of women, its to be exclusive of men. And its not that it's too much work to include some trans women on the basis of ability, it's that it's just impossible. Do they include only those who aren't likely to win? Maybe some that can win, but not by too much? What about a champion male who's recently transitioned and would shatter the world record, making it unattainable for any cis woman for years to come, maybe ever? There's no way of making those judgements, no matter how much work is done.
Its the same principle as banning performance enhancing drugs. Some clean athletes might beat some drug using athletes, but we don't try to figure that out, we just ban drugs. And puberty as a male is getting a few years if hormone-induced muscle gain that isn't fully lost even post-transition, even on hormone blocking drugs.
Honestly I'm not technically knowledgeable enough to answer, you can have a read of their FAQs. But my understanding is that the sandbox allows some google services to be used, but without privileged access to the rest of the system. As opposed to blocking them entirely, which would mean you couldn't use those services at all. https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play