I’ve been needing to buy a new phone and while I’m here in china I’ve seen some really intriguing options only available here.
obviously the telemetry is extremely problematic, more so than non chinese phones, is it feasible to try remove with adb or the universal debloater? since there is custom rom support at all? or should I just forget about it?
Xiaomi phones usually get their source code published. From there, you may want to choose a Qualcomm device, for some reason developers prefer these to build device trees for custom ROMs. If you don’t mind having an older phone, you may want to check the list of officially supported phones for reputed custom ROMs like Lineage OS or Pixel OS and buy one of those. I’m guessing that phones in China are cheap and options are numerous.