I agree with this. The actual risk of an evil maid attack is pretty low for your average person (aka it wont happen). I think that stuff is nice to have (i like it), but saying that it is a major concern feels a bit silly
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Exactly. Would it be nice if itās available? Of course it is
But it wouldnāt be a dealbreaker if it doesnāt. Iād rather have a clean system with unlocked bootloader over a locked one with a ton of questionable system apps
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I donāt think that PG will put their readers data at risk. At least I would never do that, ever. Someone stealing or obtaining your phone and getting access to your data is a risk that should never be accepted. Thatās all I have to say.
At risk is a bit misleading in this context. Statistically, most people will never be the victim of an advanced attack (such as an evil maid attack). I dont know about how encryption works on android but it would seem to me that device encryption (however that is done on android) would be enough for almost everybody and would definitely suffice for a budget recommendation.
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One last thing is that people who prioritize privacy and less bloat over security and structure of a device probably donāt realize that people these days do critical things like banking, etc. on their phones.
I am aware, but most people also use credit cards abd those tend to be pretty insecure from what i understand. But i do see your point and agree that more security is always welcome
You do realise that those bloat also have system permissions, right?
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I had an additional thought for you as you make your considerations, if I may:
Itās interesting, for me, to witness the inclusion of Skiff. This was a vendor who worked to meet the criteria of PG over time. Your project set the minimum standard and forced the market to adapt. By setting a hardline of inclusion criteria there may be some future benefit of forcing the market to adapt over time.
Evil maids arenāt that much of a risk for day to day people, and malware persists in userspace just fine
I agree with this. The actual risk of an evil maid attack is pretty low for your average person (aka it wont happen). I think that stuff is nice to have (i like it), but saying that it is a major concern feels a bit silly
Police interactions are far more common for many low income individuals and the simple truth of the matter is that invasive tools are used for even the most benign offenses. Usually with phone-owner consent, but still. Perhaps these are not evil-maid attacks, but itās entirely realistic to be planning for them and attempting to mitigate for marginalized groups.
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So what? Do you think Samsung will casually steal or allow someone to steal their customerās critical data?
With a Samsung you get locked bootloader, software support, etc. You actually have fairly decent security.
With LineageOS, you just nuke your security and pray that you donāt get compromised.
Well Iām definitely happy to use Privacy Guides as a tool to make good privacy solutions a reality. If @SkewedZeppelin wanted to add support for devon to DOS and thought itād be a good device to recommend for example, Iād buy him a Moto G32 to test with right now 
(Weād get one ourselves for testing too, of course)
That would certainly make this whole discussion simpler.
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You raise some good points, particularly about police interaction. I agree that high security features should be the criteria for full inclusion, but i still think that it would be good to put some budget options as a āfallbackā. It would also be helpful to understamd what exactly each security feature does. Along with that it may be worth investigating the realistic chance of needing it, because personally i dont fully get the hardware side of things 
And verified boot doesnāt seem to protect from this either so
which Iād argue doesnāt matter all that much for the average people
This shows to me that youāve never used a budget samsung device before. As of today (December 5th, 2023), the last update I got from my Samsung A11 phone was on September 15th, 2023, with a May 5th, 2023 Security patch level
I wouldnāt call 3 months of no update a well supported OS
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By the way, I have a family member who is using a Samsung Galaxy A13. Iām also the one that helped set it up for the most privacy, security, and performance.
Having used the device, I would take it anyyyyyyyyyyyyy day of the year over the device running LineageOS.
Regarding G32, is there an argument to be made that keeping the stock OS installed, for the time being, delivers more of a security benefit?
Iām imagining a scenario right now where someone asks me to recommend a secure $150 phone. Before this thread I may have said āI donāt knowā. Now I could potentially recommend G32 to a friend, but I donāt know that I would advocate for installing an aftermarket OS for the moment. Whereas I would advocate for GOS on Pixel.
Does it make sense to keep stock on the G32? Honest question, itās been years since Iāve used Moto G, though I was quite fond of mine.
That I canāt really answer without ever having used the phone. If we were to want to recommend it as a result of this thread, Iād have to buy one for further testing. Iām not super familiar with Motorolaās software track record post-Lenovo-acquisition either.
I actually did own a Moto G myself for a time, but that was when they were Google-owned.
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I have a massive list of devices people already want and it is slow to work through them: https://github.com/Divested-Mobile/DivestOS-Build/blob/26c0951cd24d37342b88270362dc685539446009/TODO-device_additions
I need to add lynx soon, maybe Iāll add axolotl and these moto devices to gain parity with what Calyx offers.
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I tried it once. I saw and bought a cheapo Asus phone but the maintainer is very irregular with their updates (relative to other devices). The device got removed eventually maybe because he got bored, got a new device or got busy with a day job.
The devices that have regular releases are already near EOL with respect to their original launch/release date and youād run out of vendor firmware update in about a year.
Then you realize that the one that has a consitent release with updates and firmwaresā¦ are Pixel devices and that loops you back with GrapheneOS.