for navigation maps, you can use openstreetmap like magic earth and organic maps
if you think osm doesn't have enough data of your area, then you can use herewego maps, its another proprietary map, but is a bit better than google on privacy
the ad based internet, as it is today was never supposed to work as some people will always block ads meaning more ads pushed to regular users and thus more people using adblock until we hit the break-even point and the site is forced to shut down or do the enshitification thing
phones gets updates over months which enhance or worsens the experience of the device
eg pixel 6 got worse with updates and it didn't even get updated for 2-3 months I think and various poco phones had bad motherboard issues which only showed up after a few months
in fact, it was common for pixel series to get widespread hardware issues like green screen on pixel 2, screen not placed evenly on pixel 5 and more, even though it got good "reviews" on YouTube because they were impressions
users buy based on reviews thinking the device is good but that is just an impression
and coming to the last line, why do you need to be bombarded with review videos?
its ok if we get 1-2 device review
yes, grapheneos on pixel 7
I think custom Roms respects us a lot more than stock is which treats us like product