On the one hand, Google has gotten to 8 so I feel like the Pixel probably isn't on the chopping block. From the big G side of things, there are some advantages to the Pixel over Android in general, beyond just earning money on the hardware (though I am sure they do earn money on the hardware and I am sure that helps). It seems likely to be around for several more years unless Google truly gets a shakeup. On the other side, as a consumer I have gone from a Google supporter and even evangelist to being a solid skeptic. Google killed both Reader and Play Music while they were still popular, pushed VR hard for three years then utterly dropped it (I understand why they moved away, but it went from darling to "never heard of it" in less than a month) and went back on their multiple promises to keep Stadia going. They also never really lived up to the original promise of the Pixel, which was supposed to be a more mainstream phone with better, more solid features and excellent support. Instead, the hardware feature set has failed to be either groundbreaking or stable, and the support has been hit-or-miss at best since the start. Google has also broadly been mediocre at ecosystem integration as well, buying Fitbit and then not bringing wear and Fitbit to the same standards, or making them work together, putting out nest devices but then making them obsolete in a handful of years, making a tablet that's also a smart speaker but isn't good at either and costs as much as both combined from another company, transitioning to Matter but not explaining that transition to consumers, brow beating Apple over RCS but then not making Voice compatible, pumping new assistant features that only make it to the Pixel line (if that) and frankly lying outright about their coming cross platform AI capabilities earlier this year. Oh, and do we all remember what a mess Google made of chat a few years ago, killing their strong chat program, trying to launch several other chat platforms with a mishmash of "features" all at the same time and failing to provide even the basics of their old chat platform while doing so? While I have always believed that Android OS has advantages over iOS, after 8 generations the Pixel has failed to even match, much less exceed, the iPhone in any strong point except the camera, and it's not because Apple has an unbeatable model.
That doesn't mean Pixel phones are technically bad phones, it's just really hard for me to get excited about a premium brand from a company that so frequently demonstrates their need for a rectal craniotomy.
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