I actually bought the Pixel 7A just a couple of weeks before the FP5 was announced. This was dumb but my old FP3+ was simply unusable so I really needed a replacement and I felt certain that the FP5 wouldn’t have OLED. I ended up selling the Pixel to my sister who also needed a new phone and I got myself the FP5. We are both very happy.
I think it’s pretty obvious that the Pixel is a “better” phone when it comes to the general experience from using it. However, I really do feel that this phone is “mine” in a way that I’ve never had with anything other than Fairphone. “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it” and all that. As soon as Lineage is released, I will install it but the stock rom is not bad.
I don’t think I have the same privacy needs as you seem to have so I can’t really give any advice on that front. I don’t have adversaries on the nation state or even law enforcement levels so just having control over which non-FOSS is installed is enough to keep me happy.
I’m not sure if I actually answered any of your questions but I felt like my situation could mean that my opinions are still somewhat valuable. Please let me know if you have any questions I might be able to answer.
I saw that option but it seems to actually install Emudeck instead