I dislike notifications so have them pretty much turned off.

Not using any play services or g-mail. I use busybusy for work, it says I need the play service but it works without it. My credit Union app works fine. I never got into using my phone to pay, so haven’t tried that.

I had Calyxos and switched away from it also.
Really like the Grapheneos. Google pixels seem to be good hardware. I’m going to buy an extra 7,8,or 9 pixel. Not sure if newer pixels will stay as useable.