At the same time, doesn't a "typical person" wanting Facebook, Uber, etc apps running kind of counter to the type of people that would want or need something like Graphene?
If people start from a device they own, then they can actually fight the other battles. Install facebook in a work profile for now but try and get some friends to move to xmpp. Install uber if and only if you're stuck and public transport has stopped for the night (and uninstall it after). Or any other compromise between complete submission and full device ownership.
Graphene as a project doesn't really seem aligned with this idea. Calyx and /e/ are a bit better.
A phone that my partner owns that I can actually realistically ask her to use is better than one that is secure against an attack that isn't even in my threat model and is a complete non starter.
Wait, do they actually do this too, or is this a hypothetical you made up for the example? Or did you mean Snapchat instead of TikTok, which I know does actually do that?