A large part of "degoogling" to me means "stop giving google money" and "cut off Google entirely from my life".
If I have to give Google a lot of money every 4-6 years to remain "de-googled" then I never was.
If I have to give Google a lot of money every 4-6 years to remain "de-googled" then I never was.
When you go with an alternative you lose superior privacy and security offered by GrapheneOS and you just end up leaking more data back to Google and other ad-tech companies than you would otherwise, negating any benefits several times over.
See: Advanced features, degoogling, privacy, security, and updates sections of https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
The real profit comes from their advertising business.
Maybe the phones are even subsidized by the ad business.