Signal no longer requires phone numbers. you no longer need to share your phone number to chat at least (sorry)

Sorta. Whomever does payment on your behalf has to be willing to extend credit for an immediate transaction while the very slow process of exchanging money happens at a delay. This is especially so if the transactions are international. I truly wonder how the phone with just an ordinary bank account does this. Is it Google/Apple who extend credit? If so, is that better?

Get a pixel. They are less expensive, especially at last year’s model. Way less vendor bloat. Easiest device to deGoogle, ironically. I’m running GrapheneOS on a pixel 7 I spent $700 a couple years ago. Get your freedom while you still can