reading about so many things that were in progress or ‘sort of working’.

I don't think that's specifically a Linux phone issue as much as developing for mobile devices. This is kind of thing I've always seen with custom ROMs.

For example, my old Moto G5s Plus is running PixelExperience 11 (now discontinued), and it is mostly working, except for secondary camera and encryption. There's often things that don't quite work in these cases.