Feel your pain. Got a Huawei phone mid 2018, without knowing that a few months before they removed the option of unlocking the bootloader (I was under the impression before, that all Android phones could be unlocked).

Granted, this was just a quick replacement phone when my previous phone just decided randomly to die one day.

At least at the moment it seems that Huawei is an outlier, no such issue with Xiaomi phones.

Is there a brand you'd recommend instead?

Pinephone, Librem 5, Fairphone. The first two aim at being secure and trustworthy, at the price of losing Android, which is not a big issue for many users. The latter aims at sustainability, has removable battery and is modular, expandable and repairable, but runs Android with all its drawbacks. There are options however to purchase it (along with other "normal" models) with /e/OS preinstalled which is a De-Googled Open Source version of Android.

https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

https://www.fairphone.com/en/

https://esolutions.shop/

edit: Both PinePhone and Librem 5 also have a replaceable battery and can be repaired to some extent. There are also spare PinePhone mainboards and other spare parts for sale at Pine64 site.

https://pine64.com/product-category/smartphone-spare-parts/?...

Haven't had these issues with the one plus 3t, so one plus it is for me