I recently bought a Pixel from a Google store and wasn't asked any personal information. I installed Graphene right away and the phone just works. I use FOSS apps obtained on F-Droid and don't bother with sandboxed Google Play and all that. For me that kind of defeats the point of a FOSS OS.

Sandboxed Google Play doesn't really defeat the point of GrapheneOS. Not wanting to use Google Play or any proprietary Google services is perfectly valid, for all clarity. But, it's just important to note that for people that heavily use Google services, the advantage of using those on GrapheneOS instead of on a GMS-licensing OS is very high. The GMS-licensing OS will bundle the Google Mobile Services (Google suite off apps, Google Play, ...) in a privileged way. They won't be treated as regular apps, as is the case on GrapheneOS, but will have invasive access on your phone. In general, GrapheneOS' many hardening and privacy features allow you to have a better grasp on privacy-invasive apps.

> I recently bought a Pixel from a Google store and wasn't asked any personal information.

A physical pop-up? The online google store requires a google account that has your personal info already..

Yeah, I'm just worried about the future of this with the AOSP and "sideloading" changes that Google is making to Android.

That was my experience too. Up and running in 30 minutes, I was quite surprised