I've been living this way for close to a decade and I'll tell you it's not as hard as it seems. Most of those apps are available elsewhere, most of them still work even without the play services and for the ones that give you a hard time, you can spoof play services. I think I've installed maybe 2 apps in the last decade that didn't run. Granted, I don't play games on my phone. For the odd piece of software maybe you paid for or something, there's usually a FOSS alternative that works just as well. I haven't engaged in software piracy on my phone in many years, it's just not necessary or worth it. I'm not missing much.

All you need is an AOSP rom, Aurora store and MicroG.

Tangential, someone who just willy nilly tells you to just willy nilly execute software on your device is not someone you should be listening to. I'm not installing and running a program on my phone to get a free $5 box from taco bell. I don't know what kind of app recommendations you're getting, but usually, even if I can run something, my response is "no thanks."