Agreed, dealing with deprecated android devices can be frustrating even when rooted. There was a project to bring a standard deb linux distro build to native mobile hardware, but most features like cell data access become a brick.

It is the drawback of locked proprietary hardware builds no one makes anymore.

An recent laptop with a broken LCD is cheap e-waste, and works just fine to setup on an external monitor. Mini PC are also cheaper than most pi5 now, so if you don't need the gpio... save the money for a real SSD. =3