In this domain, things change so fast that I decided to just focus on my next phone, or like the following 2-3 years.

The future is as bleak for the custom ROMs as is their past. They are aftermarket modifications of the phone software, entirely dependent on the manufacturers and Google, and these release new things yearly.

Pixels are a good choice I think because they come with the least amount of bloat, and with Android, the connection to Google is always there anyways.