I'm very used to using my phone's stock ROM with root access, however I got a Pixel 8 for Christmas (long overdue I've not had a new phone in 5 years) and while interested in Graphine OS, I'm heavily used to completely overhauling my UI (I love skeuomorphism still, I like changing the boot animation and taskbar, etc). It's just somehting I'm used go doing over the past 11 years.
Am I able to customize Graphene OS to this level without root? I know rooting isn't advized but will I break the OS if I do it? If not, is it possible to reproduce the security features (primarily removing telemetry) without Graphene?
Apologizes if these are noob questions, I'm heavily interested in the operating system but most people that ai see on YouTube don't customize Graphene.