If you want to save money on a pixel I'd recommend taking a look at swappa(dot)com Even if you don't want a used one they do have people selling pixels new sealed in the box for usually pretty good deals. I think the cheapest new in box option is a pixel 6a. Or 6 pro.
You can also find new pixel 7, 7 pro, the 8 and the 8 pro.
I've been buying and selling devices there for years and never had a problem as a buyer or a seller.
True. That's why I chose graphene in the end. Ib liked the idea of the multiple user profiles to sandbox certain activities to a disposable profile and the fact that if I need Google play I can sandbox that as well by running it as a regular system app on it's own profile..
So far it's been pretty good. I think my only complaint is I can't get my Chromecast devices to connect. I got my Google TV to connect but all Chromecast devices refuse to pair for some reason but that pales in comparison to the headaches I'd get trying to daily drive a Linux phone. But I'm big on Linux (I use it as a daily driver on my computer) so I'm patiently waiting for a daily driver worthy Linux phone. 🤞
I looked into this for myself but I was told a lot of what has already been said here and decided to go with a pixel + graphene OS .
I'm probably sticking with this type of setup until there's a proper Linux phone that can be easily used as a daily driver.
I think the key is patience. One day I think we'll have something that will be able to daily drive Linux that won't feel like you're using the alpha release of android.
My answer is boring. Almost nothing. I feel like I finally have things dialed in. Except maybe my desktop experience. But beyond that the most i see myself doing is making some upgrades to my PC like a larger nvme drive since i edit with resolve on a 500GB nvme & if you've worked with clips in resolve on Linux you know how huge the files can be. One project can be 50 GBs.
IMO it's not that Debian isn't good for gaming. It's that it's not good for gaming IF you want to just install Debian and start gaming right away. There's going to be a bit of downloading/installing, & configuring first.
If Debian is too far back of a starting point for you then I'd either go with a gaming distro where many things will already come installed and possibly (idk for sure because I've not used any gaming distros) configured for you to where you mostly just need to sign in and download your games.
My guess would be that maybe it wasn't locked in the first place or they happened to randomly try a few pin combinations & got lucky..
I think those are most likely scenarios.
Now if you're some very important person who could be target then I wouldn't assume what I stated previously & instead assume the worst.