> Play Services can either be run sandboxed or emulated with microG.

Play Services is absolutely not needed for a usable Android experience. I am running GrapheneOS without any Google crap and you could not pay me to do so.

It works for you, but I doubt your experience and needs are typical of a normal smartphone user.

I also run LineageOS with no Play Services (and have for years), but it is missing some pretty noteworthy stuff: Google Maps, Google Pay, etc.

Many bank apps, and apps to interact with official state services, usually depend on Play Services. Sometimes it is all banks in one's country, so no, one can't just "switch to another bank" as US Americans on HN often assume.

I was saying this just to be ahead of all the comments that usually come up with "yeah, but Google has increasingly put new APIs in Play Services, so AOSP is worthless".

I used to do this, but an increasing number of apps fail to work without play services. Luckily Google still lets you create accounts on android phones, so you can create a fresh account with a random name for every phone, and take care you don't give it access to something identifiable.