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The bigger problem is the community dying from OEMs not releasing their tools/locking their bootloaders (fuck you Samsung???)
Samsung and the carriers. The easiest way for most people to get a phone is on a carrier plan but surprise surprise. They OEM lock devices so that users can’t swap firmware or root. Doing so would allow them to go to another carrier. As if hanging a lease contract over your head wasn’t enough.
I don't purchase mobiles from carriers. I still don't have choices though. I'm sure there's plenty of people like me.
If you don't purchase from carriers then there are lots of options out there. Fair phone makes a pretty decent phone new phone, pixel is great after you degoogle it. Older one plus phones are generally a steal. If you wanna get really adventurous (test bleeding edge totally free software with no restrictions) there's the pinephone. Just be warned that one is straight up unusable as a daily driver imo. There are tons of great options if you purchase through channels other than carriers. What just sucks is phones that you would typically buy that would be unlocked are no longer unlocked if your only choice is through a carrier. I even remember a while back some phones would lock their bootloader when you brought your unlocked phone to their network if they sold a equivalent version of the device. I haven't seen that in nearly 10 years though and I think it had something to do with oversight on manufacturers behalf and poor choice of distribution of firmware.
FP5 is not available in the US, and FP4 has about 2-3 years of support left.
Pixel is the only real option, at least till Google does the embrace and extinguish strategy and fucks the custom ROM community over.
OnePlus devices no longer have much custom ROM support because they took away the unbrick tool.
I think Nokia devices don't have an unbrick tool either.
Motorola devices can be unlocked but not much custom ROM support (at least, from Lineage OS) either.
Which options are you talking about? I can hardly see anything other than the Pixels for devices released in 2023 in terms of custom ROMs. At this rate, I'm OK with having to manually patch security updates with Magisk every time and sideload (need to figure out how I will back up my device, do not fancy a factory reset every time)
Edit: would you happen to know how one can apply security patches with KernelSU?