The answer to "I can't do X because I use Y and Z" is not "You're wrong to want to use Y and Z". Understand that not everyone prioritizes the same things you do.

Regardless, Google already has enough information on me to profile me quite well; avoiding Google Pay will not meaningfully change that, and I get enough value out of it that the trade off is worth it to me, at least for now.

Of course everyone is free to have their own priorities when it comes to privacy.

However, for people who want to use Google Pay despite the privacy implications, I'm not sure running a privacy-preserving Android distribution is even meaningful. At that point, why not just run stock Google Android?

You realize that all electronic payments are used to profile you.

Even if that’s true, why would you add another party (i.e. Google) to that chain?

While pervasive tracking is insidious, Google is the least problematic actor since they don't sell their data.

> Google is the least problematic actor since they don't sell their data.

Isn't that like 99% of their revenue i.e selling user data?!