Josh, I have had Nuxes 6, 5x, 6P, and Pixel XL. Great stock experience and all great phones. I used to be a Samsung Note user but left back during Note 3 because Samsung lag bothered me like no other. I swore I will never go back to anything but stock android.
Forward few years, and note 7 came out. I immediately got the Note itch back all over again and coul not resist. Made the move back but we all know how that ended.
I got S7 Edge as replacement and was not a big fan, but was holding it out very unpatiently waiting for Note 8. Then something magical happen. S8 Plus came out and I fell in love. I could not shake the feeling of buying one and ultimately caved in.
My experience with S8 Plus has been absolutely phenomenal. This phone has absolutely close to zero lag. Coming from years of Nexus and recently Pixel, I know lag when I see lag. S7 Edge was lagy as hell, but this S8 Plus is just amazing. I was very very pleasantly surprised and ZERO regrets.
Things a like that Pixel doesn't have:
* Samsung Pay. Absolutely love it.
* Big beatiful 6.2 inch screen in a relatively small body
* Wireless charging. Yes I use that every day
* camera. Yes I know, Pixel has a good camera. Still think S8 Plus camera is better
* External storage. I have 128gb card for all my music and pictures. Love having that option.
* Water resistant. Yep, took some amazing videos couple times me and my son running under the back yard sprinklers.
* The sexiestlooking phone EVER made
I would not go back to plain stock android again. With such a smooth performance on my S8 Plus and all the extras mentioned above, Samsung finally got it right!!