“Stock Android” means where Google does inside it what I have listed above in less savoury words. The ones you’ve listed are basically compromised devices in your pockets — so a notch higher or lower, depending upon how you look at all this :)

Of course, but that's why the bootloader is unlockable. A production device will ship with either a close-to-stock (== close-to-Pixel) ROM or a heavily customized one. If the ROM is closer to stock, it's easier to develop and maintain custom ROMs, so it makes sense to want that as opposed to the alternative.

That doesn’t really help. If you play around with it, the plat integrity test will not pass and there goes too many apps — so that nullifies even MicroG etc as well. I haven’t played around with microg’s #2611 (had seen it on github when it was getting implemented) but the point is — it will remain cat and mouse in this manner and that is a headache one doesn’t want to have on their primary device.

I'm well aware, but I'm not sure what the point here is.

The OP was complaining that the author of the page wants "stock android". On a production device, you can either have 1) the manufacturer's custom version of Androi, 2) a near-stock Android, or 3) your own custom version but with all the usual issue that brings. There is no secret fourth option. So I don't see what the OP's complaint is trying to achieve.

You don't have to see what OP's complaint is trying to achieve. Besides you never even indicated trying to see OP's point in any of these comments you made.

On those lines I don't get any of the points you are trying to make (assuming you are) either. So maybe it's an hn thing.