I mean, they could still include those on the base model of the phone, but just officially support flashing Graphene for those who want to do it. I am reasonably certain the target markets for pre-installed apps/ads and people who would be interested in flashing Graphene are completely separate groups. Kind of like how a stock Pixel is basically Google/Gemini Spyware, but Thayer doesn’t matter to someone who buys one to install Graphene.

1TB SSD I bought at the end of 2024 for $47 is $142 now

12TB HDDs were $104 a piece at the same time and are now $300 each.