I just installed GOS and I love it. It feels and works just like stock and security features are extremely easy to use.
Almost all of my apps work perfectly without any Google services or packages, but camera quality is noticeably worse due to lack of processing. If I want to use original Google camera, I need to install Google services framework, but I have a few concerns.
I don't want to install full Google play services because it would regularly connect to Google. If I then use Youtube/Newpipe or check my Gmail, google can tie these activities to my device because these connections would come from the same IP address (even if I use a VPN). Solutions to this would be using multiple profiles with different VPN connections (too inconvenient), using TOR (too slow) or something like Portmaster/SPN (not available on Android). Another concern is that while Google play services don't have system privileges, they can still see a list of apps/packages on my system, battery percentage etc.
Is GSF just a collection of libraries or it can run and connect to Google servers on its own?