Pixel never felt competitive. The camera is good but unless you live only in Google land for everything, it is hard to see it becoming a profitable product.
Pixel phones are pretty damn good. My last 3 phones have all been Pixels. And they have damn good cameras/image AI, often coming in #1 for image quality (yes, above the iPhone). I use my phone for taking photographs a LOT, to the point that I barely even get out my mirrorless anymore, so photo quality is hugely important to me. And Google Photos is best in class as well.
It's even the best choice for de-googled users, since it has regular source drops for security updates and ability to upload custom signing keys for bootloader lock.
No, "99% of Android users" don't live in Google land for "everything". I am not talking about degoogled users here. But a vast majority of android users use very few google apps(apps like maps, youtube and iOS) which would be used on iOS as well) and many don't even use google photos.
100% of which have Gmail accounts... which is required for Play Store access and payments. A significant portion are going to have Google One (for cloud backups, including photos...).
What are you talking about then? Pixel is a high-end android device, even if you try not to use google services.