Alternative ROM market is fringe de la fringe, so there’s sufficient used hardware available. I bought my 7a for 320 eur new and my tablet for 400 eur new though, so the Google tax (or, GOS tax, rather) was moderate.

Buy used. The other phone vendors haven’t been offering the security hardware GOS needs, so far. It might change soon enough though.

Don’t wait. GOS just works.

Is Radeon V with 8 GB HBM worth using today?

What is the problem with SEPA? It just works.

I use hardware TAN generators and browsers. The cards support NFC payments. My banking apps run fine on Lineage OS and GrapheneOS.

I only run free/libre Android forks, so I don’t care.

There is Vanadium though.