falling further behind in creating a real-world usable [libre] phone that can do everything a phone is supposed to do.

Tis a cost analysis:

Our planet is too illiterate to loan out billions of euros to R&D a phone design with the hellish logistics of sourcing parts, assembly & shipments, even if we gift the phone schematics on a radicle instance. I say this as someone experienced on lots of failed investments. Even as I await this plausibility. There are others like these.

EFF should have

Designed and spearheaded their own. Detailing risks, dangers, and threat models.