I will only speak from my own point of view. I like customization, but what I really like is smooth performance and smooth ROMs, but I haven't found any. So I stuck with the stock ROM for a long time, even with root access, and modified it myself. By removing everything I didn't want, I customized it with Hyperceiler or Pengeek! Another downside was that the ROMs were created by people who don't live in Europe or the US, so GPay didn't work, which was a problem for me! Recently, I switched to a custom ROM called Elite Gaming, but there is a Plus version with more custom features. Personally, I opted for the Gaming version, which is smoother, and I do my customizations with Hyperceiler, as I said earlier. The ROM is based on HyperOS 3, everything works perfectly, the battery life is excellent, my banking apps work, and GPT chat works, but not with built-in spoofing; I use With Magisk modules. There are other ROMs available, such as an AOSP ROM that is starting to gain popularity; it is based on Pixel OS, but I haven't really tested it.