You don't need Play service to use Nova launcher, just download the prime app via aurora store if you paid for it.
I don't use public transportation at all, but for everything else the Organic Earth/ Osmand combo is fantastic.
Organic Earth for quick driving directions, Osmand for hiking and map geeking.. I'm amazed by those two apps.
If you need radar alerts, CamsSam works alright without Play services. Using the paid version, I guess free works just as good.
I always come back to Fx file explorer, so much so that I never used any other explorer for more that an hour or two since I have a smartphone. Sleek desktop look (should you be into such thing), strong privacy policy.
Tried many keyboards.. Alas, nothing ever came close to Gboard usability. I think I red a Graphene admin saying such app without network access should be ok from a privacy standpoint so I bit the bullet. I don't use it on the profiles where I installed Play services out of barely informed paranoia though. Same for Gcam.
Breezy weather is indeed awesome.
Mullvad is the only VPN I have ever used and I got no complaint whatsoever, almost as fast as no VPN where I live. They disabled port forwarding a while ago but I never found torrent DL really handicapped by that. I don't download much though.
Brave is probably the most advanced/easy android browser.. Tried to stick to firefox + modules but it's not even close.
Tubular is the fastest New pipe fork I tried.
Vimusic (YouTube music frontend) is awesome.
No strong opinion other than that.