I got a weird, semi-experimental Chinese phone at the moment (HiSense A9, the defining feature is that it has an e-ink screen). It comes without Google Play services, and with no ability to install them. It also doesn't have the Huawei alternative services or anything, just nothing.
A side-effect is that in 90% of apps notifications don't work, and it's really quite nice. The remaining ones that do work are apps where somebody put in the work to fall back to something else because they're actually important, like banking apps.
A side-effect is that in 90% of apps notifications don't work, and it's really quite nice. The remaining ones that do work are apps where somebody put in the work to fall back to something else because they're actually important, like banking apps.