[searchableguy]

You can atleast remove the googleware to a great degree, you can't do the same for iPhones easily.

Huge difference. You have fdroid, apk slicer and alternative stores without google gate-keeping. You can reflash your phone with ungoogled android or open source alternative gapps package. Use microG to sandbox google stuff.

There are ton of ways to contain googleware.

[xtian]

Which of those do you think are accessible to the average user?

[sudosysgen]

All of them if someone else does the initial set up, from first hand experience.

[xtian]

What about updates or when something goes wrong?

[searchableguy]

Does google provide you support when something otherwise go wrong? No. Unless of course it's a pixel.

And I have a custom rom which gets update every month. Ungoogled. :)

[square_usual]

The comparison you should be making isn't with Google, but Apple.

My experience with custom ROMs was unfortunately a lot worse than yours. I had the original Galaxy Note, and picking a custom ROM for that was a "Updated, has features, doesn't kill your battery - pick 2" kind of deal.

[tracker1]

Not too different from MS not being first line support for your Thinkpad, but offering more for surface laptops.

I'm still under update coverage for my Pixel 2XL, haven't felt compelled to upgrade at all. i do wish more handsets supported using Lineage or another open variant/option for after coverage expires at least.

[sudosysgen]

For updates, you hit the update button. When something goes wrong, same as others.

[michaelmrose]

You can still use the google play store and switch email, maps, and browser and give almost no data to google and anyone can install apps in google play.