[nextos]

If you use a third-party ROM such as the excellent GrapheneOS, in practice you get fully featured updates for really really long.

With that said, open source ROMs don't take advantage of some features such as the Tensor SoC, and therefore the camera stops performing so good.

[phh]

GrapheneOS is pretty clear about not supporting devices longer than the OEM.

From their FAQ:

Why are older devices no longer supported?

GrapheneOS aims to provide reasonably private and secure devices. It cannot do that once device support code like firmware, kernel and vendor code is no longer actively maintained. Even if the community was prepared to take over maintenance of the open source code and to replace the rest, firmware would present a major issue

[nextos]

There was extended support planned for Pixel 2, which was dropped recently from mainline, but it has not happened yet.

One can always switch to a different ROM I guess.

[kaba0]

Graphene has a specific sandbox for google play services, so you can continue to run the google pixel camera app (which can presumably run the same way as under the official OS)

But also, it has a good hardware ISP that will also improve image quality by itself.

[akc3n]

GrapheneOS is working on its new Camera app, which will soon replace the bundled AOSP camera app.

For more info: https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1450746282176303107