Agreed, Android 13 was expected though given the SoC platform and launch timing.

A Pixel 6 Pro.

I'm already on Bluesky, but I stopped posting there because it seemed dead in comparison to Mastodon and Threads.

They had a bunch of desserts (different kinds of scones) and drinks.

Most OEMs aren't willing to preload Google's AVB keys for their GSIs. DSU is only really supposed to be used by app developers (and even then most app devs don't know it even exists or use it) which is why most OEMs don't bother with it.

1. The vibration motor is surprisingly good! When my alarm rings in the morning, the haptics closely match the sound of the alarm.
2. I always prefer durability over looks, so a nice braided cable is what I'd personally prefer. But I don't think there should be issues with the default cable, not that you have to use it since the phone supports PD charging. (I've only had the phone for 2 weeks, so it's not like I'd have enough time to experience cable failure if that is a problem.)
3. I prefer side-mounted/capacitive fingerprint readers still, and there has been the occasional time where my fingerprint wasn't recognized, but those are just general woes of optical under-display fingerprint scanners.
4. Nope!

It looked pretty much the same as before, but the background didn't change colors based on your system theme (Material You dynamic color theming). And yes, the monthly calendar widget is still there, and I believe also gets dynamic color support.

I haven't used the Phone (1), so I can't compare the two.

Yes!

Sure, the manufacturer could, but they might not provide those kinds of images to their official repair centers, certainly not third-party ones.

Android hasn't used FDE for a couple of years now. File Based Encryption (FBE) has been required instead since Android 10. With FBE, each user has their own credential encrypted storage location for apps, which are encrypted with the credential from that particular user. (I verified this while testing. When you boot and unlock the primary user, other users data at /data/user/{id} is still encrypted until you unlock them.)

That's a good point, and I agree: There should be a way to trigger Maintenance Mode remotely, like through Find My Device, should Google implement this.