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)
I'm on graphene and I have an 'adaptive' option under Display > Colors
I just cancelled Kagi. It's good but not really good enough to justify the cost, plus stuff detailed here https://www.osnews.com/story/139270/do-not-use-kagi/
I gave yandex a quick run, it's actually very good, functionally, but a privacy nightmare.
Currently trying out Mojeek, one of the few outside the big three to have it's own index. Pretty good - not all the conveniences of the bigger ones but maybe good enough most of the time
I've been enjoying Kagi, although it also proxies google and others, and you have to pay for it, and I was dismayed to read on Lemmy recently that the CEO may be a sea lion. So yeah, the search for good search continues I suppose
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