Tbh, I don't like that e/os is a few months behind in security updates. But making claims about the developers' intentions is just bad faith. And for that matter, a few months behind in updates is by no means good, but it isn't as dramatic as it might seem. Normal people who don't do illegal stuff or aren't important journalists don't really need the best security. The most important thing for them is not using Google by default. (Security and privacy are not the same.) Yes, Graphene is more secure, no question about that, but you also need to think about threat model and ease of use. So saying "Graphene = good, e/os = bad" is just wrong. Just generally: e/os:

• many devices supported
• very long device support (Google Pixel 1 and OnePlus 5 are still supported)
• you can buy devices from them directly with e/os and proper support

• long time between updates (a few months)
• (privacy-respecting) preinstalled apps can't be uninstalled

graphene:

• security/updates
• no extra apps

• only Google Pixels
• (my opinion) quite toxic developers. They can't accept that other custom ROMs don't aim for NSA-level security.

The whole debate about MicroG vs. sandboxed Google Play Services is another thing.

btw, I'm using Lineage on my Fairphone right now because I was quite annoyed with the slow updates by e/os and would probably use Graphene if it were available, but to say that e/os is malicious or anything else is not what is happening. They just cater to different groups of users.