Android 12 has me swearing off updating my phone honestly. It's backwards in every single way. I don't use my phone for anything critical so I am more than willing to trade security for usability.
Do you check your email on that phone? If so, and I pop your phone, I'll have your email credentials, and with that I can probably reset the password of any other account you have.
Email is critical.
I don't use my main email as login to other accounts actually. But I get your point.
yeah best way is to create a new gmail account for every phone. Or a phone only email which has the associated photos.
Other option is a yubikey
While some people legitimately blame bloatware on Samsung Galaxy, Samsung's customized Android (OneUI) is good for this perspective. Google sometimes decides weird annoying changes for AOSP but Samsung sometimes just refuses the change and keep their OS sane. I previously liked pure AOSP, but finally I found that it's not the best Android distribution.
I'm in agreement with you. I no longer like Google's UX decisions in AOSP. It's got to the point where I dread finding out what they removed or buried under multiple taps. I have Android 12 on a galaxy tablet, and OneUI with Good Lock makes it sane.
Android 12 finally pushed me to iPhone after nearly 10 years on Android. I miss somethings but ultimately I'm glad I switched.