My 2 pesos worth on "current smartpwn" debate:
Nature of my work requires that I have a reasonably modern phone and able to check into a dozen different clients' networks using whatever app or portal they demand, or I just don't get the gig. In my experience, when your phone is a tool, you use it up, wear it out in 2-3 years, by which time the manufacturer has stopped security updates (unless you have an expensive name-brand's flagship model-there you can usually expect another 2-3 years) and the battery is going weak anyways, so overall it's just time to chunk it and look for something newer. Hell, for a while there I was doing hazardous duty work in construction sites, commercial renovations and DC refreshes. I destroyed a handset every 6 months or so: It was just another consumable supply; the cost of doing business.
That's why I look for either 2-3 models down from top of the line on a name-brand, or look for one of the Chinesium manufacturer's flagship models; those will usually be best bang/buck and you can count on them to be usable tech for 2-3 years.
Difference at this stratum is entirely the peen of having a Pixel or a iPwn; for which you typically pay twice what the Chinesium counterpart costs. If you really need to use your smartPwn as your mobile office, then there's no choice: you get a flagship iPwn, Samsung or Pixel. These are the smartPwn designers that listen to professionals and give them what they want.
That said...
all phones connect to a service run by the worst pirates on the face of the planet: International Telecom providers. While your best chance of mitigating personal security and privacy risks come from choosing a manufacturer with a vested interest in keeping your business yours (this is pretty much Apple and only Apple, I'm afraid), if you admit to yourself that the big security hole really is the carrier, then the bottom line is the bottom line: how much smartPwn can I get for a price I can afford and just use the damned thing to get my work done?
I've been using smartPwns made by BLU for almost a decade now... ever since I bought 3 of them borked on fleaBay for $50 and fixed up 2 working ones. When those 2 died after almost 2 years, I started buying new off Amazon. There were some concerns about FW security when I first started using those fixed up ones; shortly after that Huawe/ZTE were banned, but Florida-based BLU went balls-deep on damage control and have been using Google-produced OTA FW since. That's why I've stayed with them.
TL/DR: A SmartPwn is a tool, just like any computing device. Some people don't need that tool; they just need a phone. Some people don't have that luxury; as with computers, in order to do their job they need one that is current in both software and hardware.
As we in here know better than most,
computing is an area where the current tech is evolving at breakneck speed. Today's state of the art is no longer state-of-the-art in 6 months, and in 36 months, it is positively archaic. Suck it up and admit that. Now you need to determine where on that bell curve the people you work for... or those you
want to work for... reside and do their work.
All this arguing over how horrible it is that our old phones are nothing more than a paperweight doesn't change the fact that
they are in fact a paperweight. A smartphone is NOT a combination wrench. Expecting it to work 10 years later the same as it did when it was new is ridiculous. The services it depends on are constantly changing, and demanding that the manufacturer keep updating it when those services also depend on new hardware... it's deluding yourself.
Deal with it or be left behind.
Homo sapiens connexa is the present and the future.
mnem