I once specifically bought an Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite), in hopes that having a clean Android and the promise of updates for at least two years will

I once specifically bought an Android One phone (Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite), in hopes that having a clean Android and the promise of updates for at least two years will prevent this very problem. Sadly, the update to Android 10 was delivered almost a year late and in such a broken state that made the phone practically unusable -- apps were getting killed so fast that you couldn't even login to some apps as opening an in-app browser immediately killed the original app. I have nothing but respect for the XDA community who managed not only to fix the problems, but to update the device to Android 11 and then Android 12 while adding useful features, including a port of Google Camera with all the AI features. So if you care about the software on your phone, I'm afraid that using a custom ROM is the only way.