I know that most customizability features that were once exclusive to custom roms are available for use right out of the box these days.
In the case of manufacturers like Samsung, I think,there are still no official builds of lineageOS for the newer phones after the galaxy s10 series.
I’m aware that GSI roms are available. My experience with GSI’s have been kinda bad. Most of the time they lack a lot of features which makes the phone not viable anymore. Then there are also the random UI bugs, which frustrate the hell out of the user.
I miss the old days when there were lots of custom roms, even for budget devices. I used to flash them when my phones were out of warranty. I could use my phone however I saw fit.
Is there no way to bring back these good times ? Or will the whole custom ROM community just shrink to the pixels and a select few devices ?
Unlockable bootloaders, having adb and fastboot support on the phone side, having a processor that has open source code, and not disabling cameras etc when the bootloader is unlocked are all needed to have a viable custom ROM community for a specific device.
Lots of modern phones don’t do some or all of the above. Mediatek powered phones are a no-go, some phones don’t support adb or fastboot (iirc some older LG phones have this issue), Sony would disable the camera if a bootloader was unlocked on some of their older phones.