All of the following are just my opinions based on what little experience I’ve had with L5, and other hardware and is a ramble-on not a rant. It’s not important.
I don’t even know what, nor care about what a “DFU” is. People I know, one for another example, picked up her Samsung A23 and has never had to resort to searching the internet nor the Google catalog. Was able to use it to make calls, separate groups, a share folder w/ family and a another for business. Pay with it, play with it and play music, watch videos… without mush hassle.
Downsizing the difference between L5 and the two monopoly-phones, to me, is comparing the USS Nimitz to a kayak. Sorry, but as much as I respect your knowledge, the L5, from many other’s post here, and elsewhere online, the L5 doesn’t cut it.
If all the pro-privacy works, it is by that alone that the L5 exceeds it’s use over the others. But one must be prepared to run the gauntlet now and then and heed the caveats.
The L5 I have, was a gift/bonus for a friend/co-worker who graciously refused it. I said I would try it. He said …‘and then you’ll know why.’
[sidebar] Just a mention having read some stats last night, several people in the U.S. have been pulled over by police, and when told to get out of the car, they victim automatically reached for their phone. It’s a habit. The habit has cost a few some serious bullet wounds, and death. Be careful when getting out of the car OK!
[/sidebar]
As I said before, I tried the S23, and A8 and found them to be much easier to navigate, slide is fantastic. Slides down down left right without needing 2-4 tries. When swiping they don’t load up a lot of other apps. When wanting to install something I tap, tap OK, done. I an’t get any software without learning what a flatpak is, the where to get to the command prompt and what to type in.
I prefer Amber, I think as it went south to be replaced, it almost reached near perfect use. The old Microsoft way of ‘If it works, fix it’ applies everywhere, and we’ll skip the part about improved technology. IMO, the only thing that is improved is the stalking built in to them, and few bells and whistles. Where would the industry be without upgrading?
Apple has always been extreme with ‘proprietary’ and wanting to be the leader. Today, I think the leader is the one with the best offer of service and low price - usability comes second.
I’d love to see L5 and other products here become number one 
.
Some folk here can spout command line prompts as if they ate the book and that is great because they can help and are very good at it. In exchange, I teach them tolerance-toward-noobs 
L5 has a way to go still. And after I switched to Byzantium (Biz), I see Crimson is now being worked on. That means Byz shares it’s fixes, updates, upgrades improvement with Crimson. Slower turn-a-round times with fixes. Example, just how much interest have the kahunas of PureOS Store (the store with all the apps) in fixing it? Is anyone in a hurry to get it rolling? I doubt it. Not after I’m told I could use the command prompt.
If those proverbial ‘they’ want to be # 3 as phone choice, ‘they’ will have to do better - much better. Ads don’t improve anything.
~s
