I personally use Kanary because it seemed better than Privacy Bee and it was cheaper than Optery. Though I do believe Optery is most likely the best overall, Kanary seemed to be the best for the price.

Pray that Google enshittifies YouTube enough for any amount of creators to migrate to Peertube

This is the only question that really matters when it comes to these alternatives

Personally I haven’t really changed anything about my entertainment other than how I attain it. Torrented movies, shows, and books, cracked games, and ad+sponsor blocked YT via Piped mean I get all the same entertainment as ever if not more (plus I actually own it forever). The only thing I’ll admit I miss a bit is Reddit.

Why not just let Watchtower do it for you?

I use Conduit for myself and a couple friends to chat while gaming. It was a bit finicky to setup with the TURN server, but once it was running it’s been great. Even has sliding sync for Element X. Only thing I’m still struggling with is setting up Webhook notifications.

Can I ask why you’re switching?

Also currently looking to replace my Ring Doorbell

What email provider are you moving to?

I believe Proton Pass and Proton VPN are both on F-Droid

Piped

Honestly, I think you summed up the biggest issues. As much as I look forward to getting a Pixel for my next phone solely for GrapheneOS, it’s understandable for people looking to degoogle to not want to buy a Google phone. The developer I think is the bigger issue. Despite having since stepped down, his behavior went unchecked for long enough to make quite a bad reputation and leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. While recovering from that will simply take time, I have wondered why they haven’t taken the opportunity to come out with a Graphene-lite for non-Pixels. Something like CarbonOS as secure as possible sans Google hardware. Could easily overtake Calyx/Lineage.