Im not sure when the update came out but I've had two forced updates in the past 3-4 months for my Pixel 6. Im assuming thats when it changed. I am very meticulous about checking settings after updates but It looks like this was only online settings for your google account, not local to the phone, which is probably how I missed it.

Pixel 6 is supported through community ports (6, 6 pro, 6a), but unfortunately it is not supported (yet?) by the online installer tool. So it's for people who are a bit more willing to get their hands dirty.

the launcher might become a very similar but stripped down version.

if you liked to have more features, try the lawnchair launcher from f-droid. its a fork with readded features. you need to have the izzydroid repo activated to find it

https://apt.izzysoft.de/packages/app.lawnchair

As long as it's based on software rather than hardware I think it's safe to assume it will be lost.

You can reinstall some things (such as the default camera app) from apks you find online, and apps such as Google Maps can be downloaded from the app store (which contains all apps from the play store). But by default it strips away everything that is installed on the phone by default and replaces it with a degoogled ecosystem, and I don't think it differentiates between different devices.

Yes, because pixels are currently the only android phones with hardware security that third party operating systems can take full advantage of.

Unfortunately yes, there are technical reasons I don't fully understand. I think has to do with how it's locked down, and that it can be relocked after graphine is installed.

Graphine takes security seriously, so leaving the boot loader unlocked is not acceptable to them.

Although, that may change with google removing pixel specific code from the android source.

Then either get one or don't switch?