What you ended up with?
Ethically I'd probably recommend a Fairphone 2/3/3+ in used condition, though they are somewhat clumsy. Ironically it's somewhat more private because the fingerprinting sensor never works in all of these models :D
In theory the Pixel 3+ devices would be amazing, but their resale value is just way too high for my cheap pockets. I set myself a limit of max 200 bucks for a used device, for both used laptops and smartphones and I never buy new hardware.
I'd avoid MediaTek chipset devices, because they have a known RootKit that can be easily exploited. Their CPUs have an undocumented root mode, and there's some apps and SDKs available that got leaked a while back.
My previous devices are now kind of ARM homeservers, because they either run ArchLinuxARM or PostmarketOS [1] on them, which is kinda nice and gives me a little satisfaction when I see that I can still use them for a nice tinkering purpose even without a battery inside.
One phone even runs my local mesh router with external USB Wi-Fi adapters, off-the-grid and solar charged. The display is used for the Web UI to manage things, which is also kinda nice. It's basically a fullscreen WebKit in kiosk mode.
I gave up on rugged phones for this, I got a pixel 5 and a rhinoshield, which has survived over a year so far, although I don't just throw it around like I could with the bv7000. that phone was the smartphone equivalent of an old Nokia 3310.
All Blackview and CAT models were insanely bad when it comes to their software, and I couldn't get them to run any self-built ROM and neither any GSI image so I gave up on my dream of an open rugged phone, too :(
In the BV case I even tried using the MediaTek root-mode exploit, but didn't have success booting any compiled kernel because lots of drivers are messy in their firmware.
1) doesn't share the sources of their Android OEM images online
2) isn't compatible with LineageOS.
3) doesn't have replaceable batteries.
If either of those apply, it's just a waste of money that can be avoided, regardless of build quality. In the case of the Jelly devices, they have a replaceable battery, but it's still just software waste.
Usually I ended up buying devices that fit my description from ebay in used condition so it's also kinda better for the environment because I am breathing life into a device that would've been electronic waste otherwise.