You cannot purchase a Pixel without positively affecting Google’s profit margins. It’s not possible, you own a pixel you are a Google phone owner. If you are a Google phone owner you count towards their user counts, which directly affects the price they can negotiate for their ad business. The larger their userbase is, the more they can charge. The more ad business they get the more leverage they have. It doesn’t matter that you block everything from Google at that point. It doesn’t matter that you purchased your phone from somebody other than Google, regardless of the new/used condition. You can never interact with Google in any way shape or form, but the fact that you own a Google phone is giving them more leverage and more power. I know I’m getting down votes all over this thread for holding this position, I don’t care and I think it’s important for people to be honest with themselves. Graphene might be a great option, it might even be the best option today from a privacy standpoint, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t huge issues with buying a phone from Google to get it. It also doesn’t mean that the entire android community should give up on making something that works on non-Google devices, which is unfortunately how I feel at this point. If you don’t want to buy a pixel then the Android community is almost completely worthless in 2025. And at that point I might as well run an iPhone. I’m not trying to say anyone is a bad person for making these choices. ‘There is no ethical consumption under capitalism’. I’m saying that my choice going forward is to not give that company any more money or power if I can help it. And the most effective way I can do that is to not purchase anything they have their hands in.

I’m also not claiming that the other options are good either, but at this point it’s becoming harder for me to ignore this crap.