Android is perfectly capable of running that afaik; I'm sure that my current version (11 I think?) is at least backwards compatible back till Android 4, if not Android 2
You could try Aurora Store, which uses a pool of dummy Google accounts to pull apks from their servers. I doubt it has belittling restrictions like what you describe, and there's also a manual download option which can sometimes let you get old versions if the server still has them and you know the build number
"Do you still support the Play Store version?
Unfortunately not. We no longer support the play store version; issues about it won't be accepted. This is done to focus development on making Lawnchair 12.1 finished and making it similar to Lawnchair 2. Also, maintaining legacy code is not a focus of the developers."