These are some of my observations on navigating the minefield of daily driving a custom rom on an android device.
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Hiding root is harder than rooting
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KernelSU-Next provides the cleanest interface for rooting , and requires the least amount of effort to hide.
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KernelSU-Next is also the hardest to get right.
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Installing any android stock rom on linux is basically impossible, not even on a windows virtual machine ( though some claim on doing it successfully) or a docker container, it requires a full bare metal windows installation.
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Google is trying its level best to make android a locked garden, making both modifying a stock android device and using modified custom roms difficult. If only they focused as much on improving their actual products and not abandon them.
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Banking apps are getting notorious to detect any modifications to the host device.
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Payment apps and the entire UPI ecosystem is another walled garden , requiring an unmodified host device to perform well, using custom roms are a big no no.
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Installing custom roms require absolute precision . A single missed step can very well equal a bricked device. It is the least tolerable installation experience, rivalling even the windows installation experience. And if you apparently nuke your windows partition and daily drive linux in your desktop then congratulations , you have to install windows to get to the stock rom installation process.
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Updates are always risky, the more modifications you make , the less updates you can afford to do on a weekday.
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There is practically zero automation implemented so far for this entire process, since there are a shit ton of device variants.
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Most devs working on these are having a tough time, since they face the double toxicity combination of the custom rom community as well as open source development. Some devs make their products closed source. an example
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A lot of features that used to be custom rom specific were later implemented in android itself in subsequent versions.
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Mod managers such as Magisk / Apatch and KernelSU require care in terms of handling, making backups non-negotiable.
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Always follow and re-read documentation during installation, this is common sense but it could be tempting to overlook.
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Custom roms are cool AF tho.