I've been using Ground news a bit for a while, but have really come to rely on it since Rexxit as I had been using various subreddits for news aggregation.
I finally started paying for the basic subscription a few days ago... it's certainly worth 83 cents a month.
I've been using Nova since the HTC days, and have had it running on a Pixel 5 for a couple of years now. I haven't had any issues with it, but I don't really use the gestures so I can't comment on that.
In all the history of the world, there has never been an effective technological solution to a sociological problem, legislation mandating such a solution notwithstanding.
Any technological solution you find or build that appears to be effective is merely an illusion of effectiveness to those unaware of its limitations.
Not really better.