There is OpenAndroidInstaller which looks great, but is still in Beta so I’m not sure if I would use it.

So is it the same as Plexus?

So not really worse than any other Android phones

Definitely not as good as signal but at least Whatsapp is e2e encrypted unlike Instagram

Is it kind of like calling someone “it” as an insult in English?

On simplelogin premium you can get your own subdomain from them. For example, you can have the subdomain @computer.simplelogin.com. In my experience these might work even when the domain is blocked for sign up

IIRC it breaks end to end encryption so not interested