For me the price isn’t an issue. The biggest problem is that the payment has to be done through G playstore.

Also /e/os is cooking something for foldable Pixel:

You can try Curve as a contactless payment. I works without Google: Curve on /e/os

You can run a lot of stuff inside HA by adding this:

Maybe you can try to install Openwrt on your existing devices: https://openwrt.org/toh/google/wifi

You have also /e/OS https://doc.e.foundation/devices/dreamlte

https://murena.com/products/smartphones/

This app works great for me when I want to disable bloatware: https://adbappcontrol.com/en/tv/

Maybe your SD-card is giving up? For example: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/rpi-sd-card-reliability/232115