Maybe you can use your existing phone for google stuff only, and get another cheap phone for doing anything else, or try doing as many things as possible on a computer.
Also rooting is dangerous (it opens door for exploits and hacking) and things may go wrong (as I also used to f**k things .)
Nope. You'll still need a ROM with Sig spoof support.
Some suggests rooting and doing extra stuff but there is high chance of something not working right.
Calyx and LOS are almost the same, but Calyx is slightly better in terms of community and automated upgrades.
I suppose you can get it from here though note that it's not that functional.
If Cromite is working fine for you, then better sticking with it
You can't do much about google tracking you, but you can still block ads by using some adblocker and be on vpn.
Try to do browser isolation (do google stuff on chrome and anything else on another browser), better than none.
Do as many thing as possible on a computer.
Syncthing. it may be confusing in the beginning, but it's good once up and running.
Chromite is smooth though perhaps not much less memory usage than the ones based on Firefox.
If not then Jelly, the default browser based on webview LOS. *Not a big deal using webview as long as I never log in to G.
If I must, then I would just keep an old phone with google, which never leaves home or wherever I keep it.
Yeah that sucks. If possible, you may want to sell your device and get another one with more support (usually pixels are the best in terms of custom ROM support) or get another used one for cheap price.
Anything else but G.
Despite of hypes about encryption, most of the email providers are about the same (as long as the provider is reliable and trustworthy enough).
However, make sure to isolate email addresses for different purposes as any of the providers can read your email (unless it's end to end encryption)
NewPipe is the alternative so far. Libretube is cool, but the instances are unstable. Odysee is also good though it can get slow depending on your connection.
It could be helpful about unloading some crap though It does say that "system apps cannot be truly uninstalled without root".