It's painful tbh. I tried it and went back to stock because Google apps and services are really good. They make the device tbh.
Also if you use a custom ROM on your phone your camera will SUCK. The manufacturer of your phone has created the camera app themselves and put a lot of work into it to get great photos. But stock generic camera apps are terrible. You get pictures like it's 1998... Unusable.
Just stick to the phone as it was when you got it and enjoy.
Google isn't nearly as bad as people think. They let you turn on anything you want, you can easily export your data etc. Apple is way worse. Not only do they collect as much as Google but you can't turn it off and you can't export all your data. My wife's notes are still stuck in iCloud. And she has hundreds of notes.
So she uses Android as her primary but still has to keep an old iPhone around to access her notes. Appalling