thinking about paying $500 for a pixel 6 to nuke it and install either lineage or graphene. Main reasons: security, I want to degoogle, hate bloatware, I want complete freedom to choose what apps I want on my device, smartphones are notoriously known for their short support cycles (to me 4 years is not enough).
what I don’t know is why graphene developers have chosen proprietary hardware from what has to be one of the most foss unfriendly companies
It’s fantastic. Zero complaints.
Google is incredibly FOSS friendly. Graphene wouldn’t exist if they weren’t. Nor would Lineage or any other ROM, for that matter.
There’s no such thing as an Android device without proprietary hardware.
The reason Pixels are chosen is because they have a significantly higher level of security.
And because they have unlockable bootloaders, which is still a rarity these days.