I have a Pixel 7, stock Android 14. It is my only phone and I love the stock system. But I am trying to gradually ditch Google and its services, for reasons well-known in this community and Lemmy in general. How much would I gain/lose using a custom ROM with/without GApps?
Update: Switched to GrapheneOS, no regrets :)
I love custom roms and even developed for CyanogenMod and LineageOS. However, that was for Samsung, Nokia and Motorola. Those roms have loads of bloatware. The Pixel has no or little bloatware.
When going without Google, custom rom and f-droid is the way to go. With gapps, the advantage will be that you get longer updates, as custom roms usually get more updates. That is, as long as somebody is interested in the device and developing for it.
Also, when rooting, the official roms usually refuse to update, a problem that doesn’t exist with custom roms.
Out of box Pixel is full of annoying promts and notifications, GrapheneOS just leaves me alone