Ok, it would have been nice to have such a greatly designed phone with no bloatware and open-source, but the costs will have been a lot higher. Cheap things comes with tradeoffs, but this is a fairly good way not to trade off your data.
What do you mean by saying that you cannot replace Google Play Services? Why would you need to replace them in the first place?
Again, the goal is to have them disabled for everyday use and activate them only when you need to install an app. Assuming that you don’t install apps everyday, I think this is a very good tradeoff.
Also, you might get some issues with some notifications, but this might be a good thing for your personal digital wellbeeing. That way you will get a more intentional use of your phone, thing that I advocate to as achieving digital maturity.
Sepparately, before de-google-ing your phone, make sure you can live without Google.
Do you still use Google Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Drive, Mail, etc? If so, maybe you should stick to your stock setup and accept Google as part of your life.
If you are able to delete your (typo fix) Google account without losing important data (as in not keeping important data on Google), then you might try this setup.
Bottom line, you don’t need to replace Google Play and Services, but prevent them to be constantly monitoring phone activity and only activate them when you need them.
Am I missing something regarding your statement?
Google play and play services are most difficult to replace
