I do use my phone for other things but I could use a "mobile Linux device" just the same and without the snooping from cell towers, which is my primary concern

I do use my phone for other things but I could use a "mobile Linux device" just the same and without the snooping from cell towers, which is my primary concern (for trivial, self-inflicted reasons to be fair). In practical terms, my phone stays in my pocket until I'm home anyway. To disincentivize me from using it outside my home, I turn off mobile data, which has made it obvious to me that I never use it in public and only carry it around for fear of some emergent situation which would otherwise be trivialized by the ability to communicate over a long distance. Also, something weird happened when I regained the ability to avoid looking at a device in my hands: I started to see that everyone is addicted to their phone. Used to be that any time I had to wait for any length of time, my first instinct was to pull out my phone. Now I just look around and see everyone else do that. The decision to leave my phone at home (with exceptions) is an extension of that change in my habits.