Even if apps you use depend on play store one of the things you can do on GrapheneOS is temporarily disable it and only turn it back on when apps refuse to run, another option is just keeping those apps in a separate work profile.
The actual stick is pretty easy and cheap to replace, you can get a kit on amazon for 2 sticks under $20.
That applies to pretty much all desktop apps, your browser profile can be copied to get access to all your already logged in cookie sessions for example.
Keys, wallet, phone, USB charger pack, meshtastic radio, weed pen, headphones and my glasses.
I was using a smallish lunch bag I got at a tech conference 15 years ago as basically a purse but it finally gave out this year so I got something a little bigger and can also fit my Nintendo switch or small netbook if I want but those are more for when I'm traveling.
Yes grapheneOS only supports pixels at the moment, but LineageOS and other forks of AOSP are available for other phones and also tend to not include any google apps at all by default.