I have upgraded from Nexus 4 to Nexus 6p to Pixel 3 and have never started off fresh. Have factory reset my phone a couple of times and have been able to restore where I was. So I can't relate to you to what you are saying.

Sort of unrelated - I hate these kinds of comment chains. One clarifies something, other comes up - what about this though. And this whole chain itself when the article is about RCS.

Also disc that I am a Googler.