And the hardware is great IMO. Pixel 6 was my first Pixel after only buying iPhones, and I swear the thing survives so much abuse. (Although I heard the 6 in particular had many issues, I love mine)

Why don't you care for GrapheneOS?

As the matter of fact, I'm curious about the differences now.

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/grapheneos-der-goldstandard-unter-den-android-roms-custom-roms-teil7/ This author made a series about custom roms (unfortunately only in German, but Firefox has a built in translation function) where he tested what data was sent in the first 24 hours of using the custom roms without installing any new apps or changing the settings. To summarize it: Most custom roms still build up a connection to some Google server (like a SUPL server for example) and some custom roms have rather bad security practices (like waiting for a month before rolling out security updates). GrapheneOS is the only custom rom that doesn't connect to any google servers and has exceptional security (even better than Stock Android).

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I use a Pixel + GOS

Pro: I keep my bootloader locked and just hit a button for updates.

On LOS, you could go through some kind of relocking process each time, but updates are pretty darn frequent. As a result I ran around with an unlocked phone... Which is honestly stupid.

Con: It's really not a cheap route. New features on GOS like android auto require you to have a fairly newer pixel. They do drop out support as time goes along too. If you get a pixel 7 or 8 now you can expect something like 7 years support. What I'm saying is, if you get some Pixel 5 today, you aren't getting all the updates...

Also android auto disconnects somewhat frequently while I drive. I can't blame GOS entirely, android auto is a weird app, and aspects of it are head unit dependent... But my LOS experience was flawless.

Seems to me (and that doesn't mean much) to be the most secure / well updated option. GrapheneOS on a Pixel runs GREAT for me, I honestly expected a buggy experience from a custom ROM.

Also, my grandmother could install it (this was especially enticing, I was worried about having to flash an OS, didn't want to brick a phone).

You get a lot of flexibility when it comes to installing Google Play Services. What I do is install any app that needs gplay services to a separate user profile with them installed.

I honestly don't have any cons, I'm completely satisfied with it, I can't see myself switching back to an iOS device or trying stock Android.

I can think of two cons, although they don't bother me (not sure if this applies to every ROM available):

You miss out on some features / apps that come with stock android, such as AI features.

AOSP apps are installed out of the box, but aren't wonderful for day-to-day use IMO. I recommend Fossify and You Apps

Yea it took some time until my FP4 was supported by lineage, back when it was new. But if the price is an issue I doubt OP would get the latest model, anyway.

I upgraded to the G6. I honestly don’t remember what my reason at the time was.

Xiaomi ones do. Does Redmi require that too ?

yes, they do (redmi the same as other xiaomi phones) and that's an important thing I left out.

I did create an account long ago with an alias email that i've used for the unlocking of several phones' bootloader. it also requires a phone number for "verification" when you start the unlocking process, so for anonimity you'd need an unregistered burner phone number

so it does leave a trace in their books

It's not shady, it's just a business model. The goal of the lead developers has always been to turn iodéOS into a self-sustaining project that they can afford to work full time on. That's why their headline feature, the iodé app, was partially closed source during its core development phase. Once they got it to a stage where it could be monetised, it went fully open source. At the same time, they notified all existing users on their forums and through the iodé News app of this change and offered a free lifetime premium subscription to everyone. There was no bait-and-switch, they looked after their community and were always honest about where the project was heading. The block lists locked behind the paywall are non-essential ones targeted more at parents - stuff like social media and porn. From a privacy standpoint, there is little difference between the free block list and the premium block list. I have devices running both and I notice zero difference in what's being let through. This is particularly true if you're using FOSS apps with zero tracking, which you realistically should be trying to do if you care about your privacy. Even in the unlikely scenario that there is some really pervasive tracker that gets through the free block list, you can just use a free service like NextDNS to block it.

As for security updates, it's true that iodéOS is slower than alternatives like DivestOS, GrapheneOS or CalyxOS. iodéOS's schedule is similar to LineageOS and /e/OS (also based on LineageOS), and usually runs about a month behind the aforementioned three. That is still a lot better than most stock manufacturer updates, by the way. However, I think whether this is an issue for you just depends on your personal circumstances. I don't see all six of these projects in direct competition with each other, but rather covering different areas. If you have a newer Pixel, then for sure DivestOS, GrapheneOS or CalyxOS make more sense but LineageOS, iodéOS and /e/OS all support a wider range of older devices that aren't supported anywhere else. If you're using, or want to use, one of those devices then it's no longer a question of update speed but rather whether you get updates at all. The reason why I started using iodéOS originally wasn't because it was outright better than GrapheneOS or CalyxOS, but because it supported my existing phone.