thank you for the elaborate write-up. all them models listed are either way out of my budget, don't support pmOS or are shitty (4 GB RAM, etc). searching GSMArena for 'displayport' nets also 50ish models, all cream of the crop type of deal; I was hoping I'd score a cheap ex-flagship and get myself a nice workstation for experimentation.

in the meantime I've gotten myself a Poco F1 for cheap, I'm now awaiting the week-long bootloader unlock timer to expire and I'll try to use it as a phone only.