[_emacsomancer_]

An answer with a catch:

I ran rooted android phones for a long time, but have for the past few years been on GrapheneOS, which doesn't require Google Play, but allows you to use it while sandboxing it (so, harm reduction), and it's much less of a struggle now than it used to be.

The catch is that, at least currently, GrapheneOS only works on (Google) Pixel phones.

[On Kobos:— I agree on Kobo vs Kindle, and like Kobos a lot: but partially because I don't actually have to use Kobo's software if I don't want to. (See KOReader[0] and NickelMenu[1].)

[0:] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

[1:] https://github.com/pgaskin/NickelMenu ]

[umbra07]

My Kindle Paperwhite 5th gen is rooted and runs KOReader.

It's not a great solution - you still have very little freedom, Amazon frequently patches root methods - and you might be waiting months for someone to find a working root method, and if you accidentally update - bye bye, root/KOReader.

But it is a solution.

[_emacsomancer_]

Yeah, I think KOReader started out for Kindle first, and then added Kobo (and then other things - works on Android for one, and KOReader is typically what I use if I'm reading on my phone too). I just went with Kobos from the start because it seemed like there were fewer problems with Kobos w.r.t. getting locked in/out of things than with Kindles, though Kobos are harder to get hold of (outside of Canada, I suppose) than Kindles.