[palata]

> If you run google play services as a regular app, you cannot use banking apps, whatsapp (app works but no backups to gdrive) or uber for drivers. And you also cannot do purchases in the app store sadly. If you can live with this then fine.

I do at least some of those, so I can say you are making wrong claims. I won't test all of them, it would be your job to test them before claiming that they don't work.

> It just seems odd to me, may as well install LineageOs if you just want an alternative android os really.

GrapheneOS is a lot more secure, and in my experience I get better support than I did with /e/OS.

> You get more privacy controls than stock android.

I do on GrapheneOS, even though I installed the Play Services and Play Store. I love being able to run them in the sandbox!

> I just feel that the whole point of graphene is to be able to have a private phone and live outside big tech and you pay a price for that.

Well you are not forced to install the Play Services. But if you own a phone that is supported by GrapheneOS, I would say it's a better choice than anything else out there.