I love the sandboxed Play Services. It works better than microg, and is more secure/private than installing Play Services normally which are your two options on LineageOS.

The main downside for me was the limited phone choice. I really liked being able to use a smaller Sony phone with LineageOS, but now that those aren't really available in the US, I had to move to big phone anyway and Pixels aren't the worst option out there.

Yes. LineageOS is an insecure mess.