@mint @0 @RustyCrab @The_Almighty_Kek @childrapist1488 @pyrate There's one other fun problem with phones in the USA and it's this.
There's only 3 serious phone providers (I'm not counting Dish, which is a half-hearted attempt that's bleeding money solely to please the FCC regulators and makes it a pain for Boost customers to use their network even): AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile (who bought Sprint out).
AT&T and Verizon killed their legacy networks (and Verizon's was CDMA, not even GSM), and T-Mobile is running their 2G network in a low capacity mode with signal being dodgy. While T-Mobile says they're shutting down 2g, they seem to have the schedule of a furry artist and keep pushing it back.
To actually use your phone in the USA, it has to support VoLTE, and properly. I've used phones that were carrier unlocked with Mom's Mint sim and she would keep having calls fall back to 2g, on a Verizon, Boost, and AT&T branded phone. All 3 work with VoLTE on their own networks, but not T-Mobile (which Mint uses). Furthermore, an unlocked phone that is kinda slow costs $$$, and even better AT&T whitelists every single phone seemingly. While a nice Android flagship from the wrong carrier or country isn't on the list, wanna know what is? Yep, the Pixels and iPhones.
Oh and did I mention lineage tends to break VoLTE, especially on Samshit phones? It's a whole lot of gambling to make sure your phone makes calls, even if you never use a banking app in your life (which you will because the banks all close at 5PM on the dot, and also the ATM eats checks).
https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/1atld61/samsung_doesnt_support_volte_or_vowifi_on_lineage/https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/zb86u3/is_volte_under_lineageos_fully_supported_on_all/https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/sr9pz5/lineage_users_in_the_usa_if_you_have_working/https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/14h4wns/is_there_a_way_to_verify_volte_is_functional/My point is, in a long enough timeline in the USA, you too will use an iPhone. You'll want the damn thing to just work, and gee, iPhones just so happen to work with every carrier and their schizophrenic bullshit. Sure, you can't root it, but the other option is you hear the BEEP when you make a call as it disconnects.
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It's really just another pressure for one to obtain and use a phone.