You still have the same things on android. If an android app requests eg exact location it can refuse to run and there’s nothing you can do.
That sort of behaviour is prohibited on iOS and an app won’t be approved if it does that sort of thing. They have to allow declining location permission or at least approximate location
It's not their own phone. It's an OEM phone that will be supported by GrapheneOS by flashing it. Once you do it, there's no reason to believe it wont have the same play integrity issues that it currently has on pixel devices.
Given that their OS requires a pixel phone and google is not releasing
a) updated drivers
b) updated source code for the latest release
their days are indeed numbered.
As for not being a certified android device and being unaffected. That is not true. There will be chilling effects that result in much less FOSS app development for Android, and whether or not an OS is certified is irrelevant in that regard.
Exact same thing happened in my country. All the banking apps moved to Google Pay/wallet and there's now only one bank left that supports the AOSP android pay feature. Also using a garmin watch now.