This has been overwhelmingly my experience too, across the entire price range. They're either unusable garbage, or they're mostly functional (and nothing has been as stable as my pebble) but also huge and priced like a fashion accessory.

It's not really. Before my galaxy watch I had a amazfit gts 2 mini which cost me 70 euro, has GPS tracking, barometer, heart rate and SpO2, the works. It is really privacy safe if you pair it with the gadgetbridge app. It works fine , and while you can't install any apps it has a one week battery life even after 2 years of using it. Despite being tiny and light. Not bad at all.

My recent experience with the expensive smartwatch class is that they're buggy and shitty.