I have an S21 and honestly have no issues with it. Never seen any ads either. I don't use the galaxy store though(no idea what it's for tbh, it's not like you're forced to use it). As to "why" - it's extremely nice hardware, on par or better than most iPhones in my opinion, it "just works" day in day out.

I think the notion of Samsung phones having terrible bundled apps and janky UI might be outdated. Samsung phones got better than the previous "stock ROM" kings (Pixels and OnePluses come to mind).

MKBHD talked about this recently, https://youtu.be/qWIkBMNKj1s?t=614 timestamp included. I do not own a Samsung phone, so I can't speak to the amount of ads, but it seems they were not sleeping all these years and made the experience a benchmark for other android-flavored phones.

They became solid, somehow boring and just work. Feel free to correct me, it is just a thought.

Well, if I'm looking to buy an Android phone with the latest specs, then it's either a Pixel, Samsung or OnePlus. Out of those, I guess Pixels are less bloaty than any other phones, except if preinstalled Google apps are 'bloaty'. And there's always an option to bootloader unlock and install LineageOS.

What do you use? I currently use a pixel 2 and when it craps out I'd like to try something different.

Other than a Librem or PinePhone, what else would you suggest?

Shrug. They're fine. It's not hard to ignore that stuff. Honestly Apple's constant iCloud storage notifications are more annoying than pop-ups in the Galaxy Store you'll probably never visit anyways.

Are there other options? I want wireless charging and under $600, and there is basically nothing except Samsung or no-name brands.