I think GOS is safer because it “re-lock the bootloader after installing”
It depends. Installing a custom Android distribution (or “custom ROM”) doesn’t require rooting devices which support the installation of alternative operating systems such as Pixel and Motorola devices. Other devices (like Samsung Galaxy) which prohibit alternative operating systems may require rooting to circumvent that restriction, but again it’s generally advised against for security reasons even for those devices.
Samsung A14 is a budget phone that’s not supported because it requires One UI Core 5.1 or higher. I’ll look into Private Space, but my Samsung phone doesn’t have sensitive data, so I’m good without it.
Old thread but I want to acknowledge this in case anyone decides to get a budget Moto phone Its completely possible to uninstall Google Play Services and many of the moto bloatware via ADB but be will forced to be stuck with GBoard and will need to disable any notifications for apps persisting on reinstall Play Services but after that you still get a relatively usable phone and updates working so in my honest opinion its not a completely terrible option for degoogling. Although Motorola is still atrocious in terms of security updates on its lower end hardware but if your threat model calls for it this could be a decent compromise