This thread has certainly took a concerning turn. I really hope this doesn't turn out to be as bad as it seems.
I'm not going to lie, I feel extremely deflated about the situation it saddens me to think using anything other than GOS.
Hats off to the GrapheneOS team if they can pull this next release off, but I would not think any less of the project if this turns out to be an almost impossible task to release and maintain future releases.
I hope the team's morale hasn't been too badly impacted. We are lucky to have them do what they do.