I do agree what you say about Pixel phones, I'd forgot how terrible a bare bones system is!
The little things that the manufacturers bloat their UI with, (that I normally despise) actually do make quality of life improvements in day to day life. Granted some things get annoying, but owning a Pixel phone (8pro) really felt like multiple steps backwards for me. I do appreciate that some folk love a stripped back system, but the Pixel is too far for me.
Samsung is the other end of the scale, having multiple doubled up apps as Samsung and Google compete on your handset to advertise there guff to you.
I suppose that's why I've had a Xiaomi phone spying on me for the last couple of generations