/e/OS is focussed on not (or less) leaking data (-> privacy), especially to Google. Whereas I understand Grapheme OS wants to make it very difficult to hack the device (-> security).
This leads to different compromises.
I would say that /e/ is more normal end user friendly and GrapheneOS enables more security for those who need it, but less Android apps will work as normal.
App compatibility should also be better with sanboxed-play-services compared to microG since almost all apps/features that don't require meeting certification requirements (e.g. Google Pay and certain banking apps) or privileged integration (Android Auto) should work just like on another Android family OS. Something you might run into is the hardened memory allocator exposing memory corruption issues in apps whereyou might not see the same crashing elsewhere.
>> GrapheneOS enables more security for those who need it, but less Android apps will work as normal.
I can attest this is pretty accurate.
A lot of the Android apps you find in the F-Droid or Aurora store can be installed, but won't work since most require you to have Google Play services enabled which Graphene sandboxes by default:
A perfect example is when I was looking for a weather app and most of the popular weather apps were a no-go simply because they required Google Play services. I ended using Weawow Weather instead of several other options like Weather Underground, Accuweather or WeatherBug.
EDIT: I'm currently using Graphene OS on a Pixel 4XL
> but won't work since most require you to have Google Play services enabled which Graphene sandboxes by default:
I might be understanding this wrong, but note that GrapheneOS providing Google Play services as regular sandboxed apps should not have anything to do with whether an app requires play services.
So, if you want to use an app that does require them, you would need to install the sandboxed-play-services from GrapheneOS's Apps store then install the (Weather) app you need. GrapheneOS doesn't preinstall any Google (stuff by default), so there is an extra step.
F-Droid apps do not require Google Play services (that's part of its raison d'être) and will work fine on Graphene OS. Aurora Store, on the other hand, depends on the app in question. If it's a paid app that requires Google Pay, then it won't be compatible.
Is sad how much misinformation there is about GrapheneOS. If you can, just try it. Their sandboxed play services implementation is far superior to any other solution.
Compared to any other mobile OS, there is no compromise software wise on GOS.