I mean, what I want is a phone that I can own to the fullest extent possible. GNU/Linux is a plus, because I already use it on desktop and am familiar with it. Lack of Android apps is not much of a concern for me, although I have it on my todo list to learn how to develop replacements.

The PinePhone "does what I want it to do." I can flash a new image very easily or boot from SD card if I feel the need to. It's easy to get root and I have full access to my filesystem. It really is "like a computer in my pocket." It needs polish but this is my ideal conception of a smart phone.

Android devices, despite also using Linux, present numerous hurdles to me that suggest that although I paid money to receive them, I don't really own them. It feels like I have to go to ridiculous lengths just to get something that is as powerful as the OS I have on my PinePhone. Simply flashing LineageOS isn't enough, I have to then patch Magisk onto the boot.img and reflash it (and apparently I have to do this every OS update as well!), then to enable apps to actually access the SD card I have to install a Magisk module, but of course that doesn't actually do what I need to so I eventually stumble on this app on F-Droid that seems to work. Now I have a text editor that can access my SD card, something Mobian provides to me out of the box.

This suggests to me that I have a different conception of a "smart device" compared to most people. Truthfully, though, I don't really have an issue with Android from a UI or usability perspective, I would not have a problem with an Android OS that didn't have the restrictions Google places on it - but then we'd lose SafetyNet and proprietary apps would complain about root and we can't have that...