Like everything in life it's about balance, using too much foss software and hardware could put you in much more risk, while using proprietary software won't give you the control or privacy you want. Once again foss software is great, but it is not perfect and should not be treated as such.

There is no completely free software, even if you take out the Intel ME (which is a very bad idea as it'll leave you super vulnerable) The Intel chip will never be open source or FOSS at a hardware level. Even RISC-5 being open still has trust issues. Unless you setup a chip fab you're at the helm of someone. And as the closed source hardware runs the open source software, is it really free?

Freedom from what? Good security practices? Open source does not equal security nor freedom. You're pedaling digital politics instead of fact based privacy and security. Trust me I'd love my apps to be open source but ignoring blatant security issues is going to put someone at risk. You can't have privacy without security and vice versa.

edit: like I mentioned previously, use obtainium and you can still use open source software

It's only encrypted in a BFU state, (before first unlock). Police can probe your phone for data using a tool by cellebrite without root. GrapheneOS includes a auto rebooting feature to place it back in a BFU state but other phones will lack this feature. Using Molly's database lock allows you to not trust the OS itself by encrypting it.

edit: corrected cellbrite to cellebrite

I think part of the "it just works" definition is the default apps should work without missing features, however you're not wrong, alternatives do exist.

Edit: spelling

Well it tends to come up for me because I'm the tech person around the house and at work, so phone and other device / software recommendations tend to come my way. I don't really care what phone you use, I ain't that much of a prick.

To be fair, unlike previous years iphone releases I've seen more skepticism than normal. I fully expected diehard apple users to be resenting the removal of the lightning connector due to excess charging cables. And while those comments exist, it is a very small minority of people. However with that said I don't fully understand the mindset of buying a phone that has limited or obsolete hardware / software. (ergo headphone jack, ergo missing software feature, ergo USB 2.0 from 23 years ago)