I, an engineer, am not doing this myself, too. There is a middle ground though: just use a privacy-oriented Android build, like DivestOS. [1] There are a couple caveats: 1. It is still a bit tricky for a non-technical person to install. Should not be a problem if they know somebody who can help, though. There's been some progress making the process more user friendly recently (e.g. WebUSB-based GrapheneOS... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago

...will need to be rewritten to avoid Google Play Services. Not true. All that needs to happen is for open source developers to "re-implement Google’s proprietary Android user space apps and libraries". https://microg.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago

Which one should I use? Is this MicroG's official website right? (https://microg.org/). Source: 7 months ago

Have a look into https://microg.org/ . Revanced yt uses a fork of GmsCore for its non-root install, though you still have to log in with a google account. Source: 8 months ago

Google Play Services implements a lot of increasingly vital features and interfaces on Android. Not having it kills a good number of things people consider important, like push notifications (some apps are designed to still send push notifications like Signal, but it's kind of a hack and does drain the battery). If you're looking for almost the same functionality without google play services, MicroG[1] is an open... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago

The Official XDA forum thread is considered safe as well, by this subreddit. Source: about 3 years ago