Pretty much in the same boat here. The P9P is around the same size as my P8 (0.1" shifted from depth to width), which is great news. I would pay more for a better camera, but I care more about compactness than camera quality.

My issues is the smallest of pixel phones are still to big. I don't want anything bigger than the smallest Pixel 4 ideally.

I've moved to FairPhone anyway because there are concerns more important than compactness.

Indeed, it's a good choice. My wife has been routinely annoyed that the phone with superior specs was/is always uncomfortably large for her hands.

As likely anyone on HN is to hold: I have a bunch of old phones.

How harvest sensors, cams, thingamathings and have a new cadre of people who can build plans to take sensor THING from PHONEA and CAMERA from PHONEB and etc... and build a thing where these already known devices can be harvested and incorporated into projects, products, etc... and not landfil.?

The funny thing is the Fold is actually the smallest phone by height, and the thickness change isn't as big as you'd think...

I did that with the Pixel 8. Although I don't really care about the better camera either.

Same. I wish you could get a Galaxy S Ultra, with the stylus in a smaller size.

Isn’t this equivalent to just not offering you the smaller, lower spec phone then? Per your decision tree?