As an experiment, I bought a pixel 6a and installed grapheneOS on it and after some monkeying around for a few weeks I am now having the best "phone" experience I've ever had (including iPhones in the past).

The two best parts:

1. The phone is de-Googled by default and it was easy for me to make it work for my purposes without it ever making a network connection to Google without my knowingly making that connection.

2. I have so much more control over what I have installed and how it is configured that I've been able to make the phone work largely the way I want it to work. Not the way Google or Samsung or Apple want it to work. It's like a linux box where you can set it up your own way if you have the skills.

Both of these things are probably pretty specific to my use-case and may not be as do-able for other people. But for me Graphene has resulted in my not feeling bitter about picking up the phone for the first time in years.