PureOS to Debian, how do I get back to PureOS?

I would try pinning by origin, create /etc/apt/preferences with the following content:

Package: *
Pin: origin /repo.(pureos.net|puri.sm)/
Pin-priority: 1100

Then remove/comment out everythinng in /etc/apt/sources.list except for PureOS soruces, active content should looke like this:

deb Index of /pureos/ amber main
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos/ amber-security main
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos/ amber-updates main

After that do apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade. Pin-priority >1000 will cause apt to downgrade packages to PureOS versions.

The above is untested, so do let us know how it went, should you try it.

Once done, remove /etc/apt/preferences.

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