Could you find someone to pay you more than $150 an hour to flash a rom?
Do you have to sit there the entire time you're setting up a phone with a new rom?
The comment you replied to is making a great point, generally people running custom roms without Google's services do so because they are enthusiasts.
An Android device without Google is going to require avoiding very common apps and using workarounds that are already going to be time consuming whether you flash the device or not.
Meanwhile people who aren't enthusiasts probably don't care about Google's hooks into Android via GPS.
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People who apparently think... their hourly rate... is too high to flash a rom (something mostly automated anyways...) but also want to flash a rom and deal with a phone that is missing the core services that normally define an Android device on an outdated device and want to pay a 2x premium for a privilege may just be a sample size of you lol