I hope that at step 4 this choice will still be as easy as it is today. When we get to that level of lockdown (which may take some years, but we'll get there), it's entirely plausible that Google will move to restrict bootloader unlocking on any phones that ship with Google services. It is 'more safe' after all. That will limit you to the niche of old or special de-Googled smartphones from small manufacturers, or maybe some Chinese market phones. All of this of course also comes with loads of their own anti-competitive kneecapping - you'll lose all attestation or 'integrity' features, so any feature or app that decided it was important enough will no longer work for you, which will probably be the vast majority of them by that point.
No matter what you do, it will never be as good as it once was. We've moved from a world where custom, 'hacker' type stuff could coexist with convenient apps and corporate or government services to a world where anything custom or unauthorized effectively doesn't exist, except for a few restrictive and mangled exceptions that require a lot of pain to get to and limit your device in many ways.
No matter what you do, it will never be as good as it once was. We've moved from a world where custom, 'hacker' type stuff could coexist with convenient apps and corporate or government services to a world where anything custom or unauthorized effectively doesn't exist, except for a few restrictive and mangled exceptions that require a lot of pain to get to and limit your device in many ways.