alt Hacker NewsPixels are really great despite being from Google. I hope they will continue to make them unlockable/relockable. As you say they are also surprisingly hard to brick. Here is someone trying to break it intentionally during the GrapheneOS install:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik0AiO0WtuU
If you don't like giving money to Google, plenty of companies offer refurbished Pixel phones.
In the US, many refurbished Pixel phones are Verizon variants which disallow OEM unlocking.
When was in college and had Sprint this was a nightmare since then I wanted root for unlimited hotspot (Sprint made it easy that way), but most refurbished Pixels were Verizon variants.
And I couldn't just use OnePlus because they were only designed GSM networks or later Verizon CDMA-less. Then, new Pixels were unaffordable for me, but parents insisted on using Sprint.
I ended up getting a Pixel 3 off Mercari (which I still own) just to keep root.
Now, I can afford a Pixel 10 Pro new (which I am right now), alongside spare Pixel 9 and OnePlus 13R units. But even then (a) my income is lower than when I worked at Microsoft and (b) The OnePlus was from a trade-in deal.