Android at least used to be a relatively open platform where you could own the system but of course Google screwed it up by adding remote attestation. Now it's either iPhone or postmarketOS.
Now sure, that requires some extra effort and time from the user but it's just the situation we are in currently. Not like you have any other current options for an open mobile system outside of being an early adopter of GNU/Linux phones and their ecosystems.
> SafetyNet can also be bypassed if needed
Nope. Android phones now have hardware attestation, good luck faking that. If you install any of the stuff you mentioned, you've "tampered" with your phone. Hardware remote attestation will now fail and apps will no longer run.
My bank app complains about developer mode for god's sake. If WhatsApp starts requiring attestation, I will have the "choice" to either give up my freedom or enjoy my $600 paperweight.
My plan is to buy an iPhone soon and then try to port postmarketOS to my current phone.
Knowing that when things go to shit, you can at least have a cell phone?
I get your fatalist approach here, I really do. But if you think authoritarian companies are going to eventually ruin everything, I don't see why you'd go all-in on Apple. If you feel shorted by the Play Store's removal process, you won't like the App Store any better. If you're mad about first-world features like hardware attestation existing and being used, that's less Android's fault and more the modern development culture moving forwards.
Do whatever makes you happy in the end. Long-term though, I cannot imagine myself switching back to iOS. Apple has nothing like the AOSP, which love-it-or-lump-it is the best thing Android has going for it today.
ELI5, what's AOSP? Is it like, base android without hardware drivers? Does this make it easier to maintain 3rd party android roms?
More or less. The AOSP is the free portion of the Android codebase (licensed in Apache) and actually accounts for the vast majority of Android code you run. Google then adds their services to the OS and preinstalls it on most phones. Most people derive custom roms from a combination of AOSP code and official (albeit proprietary) drivers.