I'm very sad it failed. I think one thing could have made it a success: Target existing popular devices like the latest Nexus/Pixel or the OnePlus models and make it very easy to flash and restore. That way one can put their toe in the water without spending money on a non-android device and that risk is negated. I gave the OP3 dev some money I would have loved to play with Ubuntu Phone and especially with convergence, it might have stopped me from buying a laptop. But I didn't want to buy an expensive, high-end non-android device (I didn't like that high end Meizu) and I didn't want to try it on a cheap device either. I would certainly have bought a recent Nexus/Pixel to try it though, if I knew I could always go back to Android.