I mean, I'm not everyone but I can and do both buy and recommend phones with close to stock android, even if they are more expensive.

Like Sony and Motorola used to be pretty good about that.

Problem is, it's hard to search those phone finder sites for "Android purity" so I have to dig deep to find out how bad it will even be. The more fancy features listed on the manufacturers marketing page the more confident I can be that the features are all preinstalled spyware that might offer a cute gimmick as a bribe, at best.