I have used Pixels for a long time and never felt the issues you're talking about.
For me Pixels phone are the best overall Android phone you can get.
For me Pixels phone are the best overall Android phone you can get.
Without specifying exactly which pixels, that statement is largely irrelevant since if one generation of Pixels was good that doesn't translate to the next generations as well.
The problem with Google is that it's not a consistent HW manufacturer across generations like Apple. I've been following the Pixel series since the 6, 7 and now the 8, and they all have tonnes of complaints about HW issues related to signal reception, battery life, glass kracking, which Google refuses to acknowledge, to SW bugs, plus hit or miss services in case of repairs.
Currently, their Samsung modems are still far inferior to Quallcom flagships and call signal reception is the most important thing for me.
On the other hand, I could buy two Pixel phones for the price of a new iPhone which has been reported to have overheating issues and won't let me do basic shit like install a different browser or sideload an app.
Yeah, the hardware is better, but it doesn't really matter to me if the phone is too locked down for me to use it.
But that doesn't mean the current Pixel model for sale, is also good just because you had a good older mode in the past. Google is just not consistent at building quality phones over the years and fluctuates a lot between hits and misses in various areas with each model they release. They just suck at building HW and supporting their products.
>the worst thing I've seen is shitty reception in a parking garage
You see, that's a massive problem for me and a lot of people who see our phones as devices that should reliably make calls in all challenging situations as it could mean a matter of life and death, not necessarily in a parking lot, but hiking, camping, traveling, driving, etc, etc.
The fact that my phone has reception issue in some cases, is an instant deal breaker no matter how fancy Google's AI photo tech is.
Oh, and cherry on top, last week I had the immense "pleasure" when I launched the Google phone dialer to make an urgent call to my doctor, instead of being allowed to instantly dial a number, I was greeted by a prompt on top asking me how many start I rate their dialer app before I could dial. I wish I was making this up. Who the F at Google thought this was an acceptable UX to be pushed to production?
Of course they also have those notorious problems with 911 calls not working.
Does Google just do metrics driven development with no user studies or something? And no one there has actually used a phone for phone calls?
I find that I rarely ever type a number into the dialpad these days - I start most of my calls by voice command, or by pressing a phone icon on a search result.
It sounds like what you want is the modern version of an old-fashioned "dumb" phone. I value things like "can run browsers other than Safari" and "tries to ID callers using Google's database" over being able to make phone calls from the middle of the wilderness or underground, since I bought my phone for the ~330 days a year when I'm not in a reception-challenging situation.