If I asked 90% of folks on the street to “just format your hard drive and install a Linux ISO” I’m going to get blank stares or a million questions.

In addition, it’s not about community projects being inferior. I’m a big believer in FOSS, strive to run nothing but FOSS, and avid contributors and publisher of FOSS. It’s about support. And, for the record, Ubuntu and Redhat are corporate projects though they depend and include many community projects and offer their products for free. Lineage is a community project.

Corporations do heavily use open source, but they also pay vendors for support. The average user also expects support from their vendor. Either their mobile provider or phone manufacturer. If they unlock and install LineageOS, they get none.

Your assumptions are way off base. First about the public’s likelihood to do what you’re recommending and second about me.

For the record, I’m one of the original members of TeamWin, helped write TWRP, have contributed to CyanogenMod. I’m not some uninformed schmuck. I definitely know how to flash a ROM.