I agree with most of your points. I'll probably sell the Nexus 5 (running LineageOS 14.1 now) and get a Mi 6 as a backup phone. I used to run AOSP (stock) and

I agree with most of your points. I'll probably sell the Nexus 5 (running LineageOS 14.1 now) and get a Mi 6 as a backup phone. I used to run AOSP (stock) and root because of the camera optimization. I found it frustrating when Google introduced monthly security update. It has become a burden (especially when the Nexus 5X randomly failed to boot - that was in fact a sign of the hardware issue, I didn't realize at that time). root didn't give me too much other than playing around in Termux plus GNU tools, Titanium backup, Greenify and ES File Explorer/Manager. I wouldn't call myself hacker but I am a 15+ year Linux power user and veteran, I cannot live without root on a workstation/laptop. But I keep asking myself the question: do I really need root on a phone? My answer is no for now. I'd rather spend time with family or playing StarCraft: Brood War with friends than flushing the phone...). Losing the Nexus 5X for 2 days made me reconsider the phone I really need, ended up with an iPhone 7 Plus (cannot justify to buy a Pixel XL...). Reliability, data integrity/security, automatic backup, quality of hardware (camera) matter a lot more. I have iPad Air and iPad Pro at home so I've been witnessing iOS making progress, borrowing lots of Android design to improve UX. I'd say iOS 10.3.1 is a very good one, APFS definitely is a huge plus (it'll make macOS great again) while the equivalent for Android I don't see it coming. BTW: All above is personal experience and opinion based on my use cases.