First of all I am not trying to say GrapheneOS is bad in any way. the very fact that I can use a custom OS with my bank apps itself is super cool, and being able to install Google play in seperate profiles is even better.
But sometimes... Man do I miss some features of pixel. The ability to search images directly from screen to lens, transcription in recorder (more of a fancy but I do love it!) Now playing etc. Especially now playing and all I really liked, and is one of the primary reasons I want to go back.
I know that being in stock means Google able to have full control of my device. But still, you can deny permissions to google apps and it seems like it's working, and I need to give some permissions anyway for my usecase (currently using a secondary profile), and I might need to have an eSIM in the future anyway. Also, most of the features, they say, are running on device so it's not that big of a privacy intrusion right?
Sometimes I feel that having Google backup turned off is all that is needed to have a pretty good amount of privacy on pixel. I can still use that offline features too, right? What do you think?