The app definitely has a great UI and usability. It also has ML-based search[0]. Not sure how both compare exactly to Google Photos since it's a very long time since I've used that, but I'd say it's probably at least on par.
I can highly recommend Ente Photos[0]. It has automatic backup, and a very good replication architecture for maximum reliability[1]. It's also super easy to use and everything is encrypted by default.
[1]: https://ente.io/blog/image-search-with-clip-ggml/