However, a sane competition fuels innovation and it would be nice that SailFish OS would be able to make a transition which brings it to be a competitor of LineageOS and its forks.
Would be nice, means that we can put this goal into our wish list but we can also happily live without a 2nd end-users option which BTW it does not exist at the moment considering the state of SFOS maintenance and delivering (here), (here) and (here).
Extreme solutions - like Pine64 smartphones and Librem PureOS approach - require no compromises. it is not and it will not for many. At least not in the near future.
However, when/where running Android apps is not a constrain then Pine64 devices are a far better solution because Open Source means the freedom to deal with the code without asking anybody’s permission among others relevant aspects like privacy and security which are a blind leap of trust when closed source software & firmware are involved into.
A quick example of this claim? Thousands of people trusted Jolla’s SFOS for years but now Jolla Oy is on the edge of a bankruptcy and deeply in debts with Russian government driven Rostelecom company.
Let me brings this to an extreme scenario, just to touch the ground.
May this elevates us - as SFOS end-users - to the status of being beloved children of Putin? Also the Ukrainians end-users? Because the SFOS updates page in Settings brings a map in blue and yellow but the reality could be a far away from that “peaceful” message.
This scenario, In the cyber-security letterature is called honey-pot, a system that attracts an keep under surveillance those are considered threats or possible threats. This scenario, in the modern war books is called false flag operation, like attack some enemies and blaming some other enemies for such action.
The white rabbit hole is much deeper than many can even imagine.