Fair point, I guess it’s then better to focus on reducing rather than elimination, if the latter’s not viable (yet).

Hmm. I run an Intel-based Max, so I should then have more viable options, I guess.

I definitely will back up my files - I have an external SSD, so I’ll use that!

how does one do that actually?

PureOS might be one, though it’s maintained by an American computer corporation.

That’s North Korean levels of spyware, jfc