Can you get by with web access? That's what I do and it's fine.

Unfortunately banking apps are only going to get harder to run on software uncertified by Google.

"Hello there." - Play Integrity API

PostmarketOS is cool, but as an actual phone replacement it is tough, at least last time I tried.

That looks far too polished with locked in specs for them to not have any prototype. I'd trust companies that have actually made a product that has a janky Linux implementation that's improving, than one that doesn't exist yet relying on crowdfunding.

Yes, but everything above it (including drivers) is custom-made and tightly controlled by Google.

Yeah, but the kernel is a low-level module that handles hardware, memory, and processes—it’s not what users interact with directly, so sharing the same kernel doesn’t make it all that similar as you’d think.

What makes Linux feel like ‘Linux’ to users is the stuff on top: the userland—bash, coreutils, package managers, X11/Wayland, etc. Android replaces almost all of that, so even though it uses the Linux kernel, it doesn’t feel like Linux.

Yes. IIRC it's based on latest LTS kernel with Google patches. So it's been "year of the Linux phone" for a while now.

It's unfortunate that the slop they put on top of it is such a privacy nightmare. PostmarketOS is trying to change that and supports Plasma, Gnome, etc. But it's early days yet and still rough around the edges from what I've been reading.

Not really.

Linux had reached idiot parity with windows at least. Idiot proof OS is a fable that cannot be reached.