Comment by shadowgovt

It's a good question. I've looked at PinePhone, but last time I looked at it in detail it was light-years outside my needs for usability (very much a "we are CLI authors and are trying our hands at a mobile UI as a hobby" situation).

I think I'll look into what Android phones are out there that aren't glued to the Google Play ecosystem. Side-loading is still a feature the OS core supports even if Google switches it off (for now, and AFAIK the OS is forkable if they press the issue).