Thanks for calling me an idiot I guess ...
I mean, I don't particularly understand how "caring about warranty" goes against what you've written after that. Replacing something for free is surely better than doing so for $300 dollars, no?
Are you saying I should have installed GrapheneOS on the phone, possibly discovered that the phone has hardware issues and then go out to buy another phone because I have an emergency fund? Or stick with a new phone that had issues?
Or maybe I have made a mistake by buying a phone more expensive than $300? I can see this one actually, but I was going for something that didn't have ads in every menu as the cheap Chinese phones I was using up until this point.
Outside of the used market, which I tend to ignore due to battery/performance degradation, there's no way for me to buy a Pixel for less than $300 anyways.
It isn't a free replacement. It's a $50 for a 50% chance of replacement if you need a replacement, and if you don't you still have to pay the $50.
This might come as a bit of a shock to you, but not everywhere has terrible customer protection. I was less interested in the (free) 2 year warranty than the 14 day free return mandated by the EU.
I wasn't really risking being denied, as long as I didn't break any rules.
Consumer protection doesn't normally include buying you a new phone if you damage it.