Pixel 6a, highly recommend. It has its flaws (some proper to the phone some coming from android) but it is still the best value you'll get if you're not chained to iOS and want a 'small' 6"ish phone. The disable animation thing is of my own doing, and using the animation scale factors instead is the better approach.

I researched a lot and actually tried to switch back to iOS for a day or two before buying. All phones currently come with pretty major drawbacks IMO, especially when living outside of the US. Some lack of polish was the trade-off I was willing to make.