> According to the link you provided, it does seem to be ahead of stock Android (assuming AOSP) and LineageOS, disproving your point that it's falling behind.

The table shows CalyxOS has substantial delays for important privacy and security patches. It currently doesn't provide the 2025-06-05 patch level. It's better than LineageOS and /e/OS in that regard but still reduces privacy and security through significantly delayed patches. CalyxOS also weakens parts of the privacy and security model through the privileged functionality that's added, which simply isn't covered by the comparison table.

> The point of the OP is not that it would be better than your solution anyway; rather, if you have a device unsupported by GrapheneOS, Calyx would be better than nothing.

On Pixels, CalyxOS is missing current Android privacy/security patches. GrapheneOS doesn't support those other devices due to lack of a reasonable level of security. Each of those extra devices has significantly delayed privacy/security patches and lacks important hardware-based security features. Despite all the marketing about long term support, Fairphone 5 uses Linux 5.4 which is end-of-life in December 2025 with no plans on their part to move to a supported kernel branch afterwards. Earlier Fairphones are stuck on older end-of-life kernel branches. Those devices are missing basic updates and security protections. Those don't provide proper long term support, so if someone does have one it won't be long before it's time to buy another device.