I'd really like to hear from some people that have actually done this about what to do and what their experience is with grapheneos. I'm leery of spending hundreds of dollars on a phone that may or may not work as I want.

I've done this, here's my takeaways:

On the install:

• The install guide is long and detailed, and it felt important to take my time and do every step exactly as it says.
• In spite of the length of the guide, I was done with my install in about 45 minutes. I spent about 30 of those minutes sipping coffee and reading on my Kindle while my phone applied updates automatically. -By the time the install finished, my feeling was "that was it? I feel like I clicked like 4 links and it did everything."

On owning it:

• My $300 GrapheneOS Pixel 6 is substantially more responsive than my previous $1000 phone. I migrated to a 3 year old phone and if feels like a big upgrade.
• My camera opens quickly, snaps pictures quickly, and is ready to snap another picture, quickly. This shouldn't be a big deal, but some of your with $1000 Android phones know what I'm talking about. I'll die on the "this should never have been hard in the first place" hill. But in the meantime, the responsive camera is the most important quality of life upgrade I got from GrapheneOS.
• Installing apps from Aurora, with it's privacy insights, was very eye-opening for me. I mention this mainly for context on my next point.
• App compatibility has not been an issue for me; but I quit using certain really invasive apps when I saw their tracking details in Aurora store. (Cough - Paramount Plus - cough)
• I've heard bank apps can be a challenge, but mine works perfectly. I now love GrapheneOS enough that I am realizing I will move my money if that changes.