> custom launcher
Speaking of this, this is another thing Google seriously screwed up lately. Used to be you could install Google Now launcher on any device and avoid OEM crap launchers. Now there is "pixel launcher" which is tied to the device. You can get the APK but this is non supported.
It is so weird to me that they would create a platform where you can swap out launchers and not leave a reasonable first party default in place. Bad for the Android brand and bad for users.
Here is another one.
I can't stand the plain bland stock Android UI.
To see where I came from, Enlightenment was one of my favourite window managers on my Linux days.
Enlightenment always seemed cool in videos but very bland when I actually tried it. Ugly even compared to what I had seen.
I do actually know someone that loves Samsung software, but it's rare. I think they'd get really far if they would make it light and easy to remove. I really don't see any disadvantages to that approach, unless they're being paid to include things (which is entirely possible).