I had the original Pixel & just recently it started failing so I got the pixel 5. I like them, they are basic and good quality and small enough to hold easily. Compared to my previous Samsung phone and husband’s current Galaxy phone I find it feels cleaner and faster, not as many pre-installed apps. Yes it has all the Google services installed, but I use those and it has not all the Samsung/T-mo stuff on top of that like the Galaxy does.
In general it does everything I want and nothing I don’t want but agree the default text app not being SMS is stupid. RCS should be opt-in, sometimes texts to the husband don’t get delivered even though both phones support the protocol.