“Romaine … also ruled the infringements that did occur were “amply and demonstrably justified” under the Charter because of the nature of the unprecedented public health emergency.”
This is the important part. Just because they are getting off on a technicality does not mean they did the right thing. I wonder how many are dead due to their arrogance.
I’ve never been one for brand lockin. I did the same journey OP doing. Here’s what I want; and here’s everything on gsm arena that comes close. The lgv5g simply blew the rest out the water and because it was discontinued I got it for a quarter of the price. This was two years ago when 5G was just starting to hit towers in my area, so 5G phones besides Apple and Samsung were slim pickings. Getting something with an sd card, headphone jack, USB c port, wifi6, and waterproof all in one box? End of discussion. I’m tempted to grab another for when this one dies.
It’s still getting updates and when that stops I’ll use a custom ROM if I can.
The biggest polluters just pass the cost onto their customers by raising prices.