There's been so much in-breeding in the *NIX world since Torvalds created Linux (as a fork [derivative] of UNIX) that the differences often are very subtle and indistinct so now they're all in general referred to as "UNIX-Like." So now that covers UNIX, Linux, Android, OSX. and a bunch of others.
And like all 'true' Linux, Android is open-source. Its kernel is covered by the GNU (say: Guh-Noo) General Purpose Licensing agreement (GNU GPL), which lets anybody do anything they want to with it, provided they give credit to whoever they stole it from.
It's been several years since I've had a smartphone with Android on it because I started replacing the factory Android with a fork called CyanogenMod, which by design has been stripped of all the G**gle spyware and comes "rooted" by default. Four years ago a corporate kerfuffle caused CyanogenMod to be re-named LineageOS (LOS), and they currently make LOS ROMS for 109 different smartphone models.
I recently bought an LG Classic fliphone (for $30 @WW) running an Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) ROM as a cheap back-up phone. The LineageOS ROM isn't available (as a rule) for low-end phones, and I didn't want to invest the time on an occasional-use phone in switching to LOS anyway, so imagine my delight when I discovered that LG was selling cheap phones running (G**gle-free) AOSP.
Anyhow, good luck to PureOS. The added competition can only improve the breed in general but LineageOS has been creating G**gle-free ROMs for Android phones since 2009 (currently approaching 2 million active users), so they've got some catching up to do.
Maybe Android is not part of the conspiracy but isn’t it controlled by Google?
For sure Google Play Store is a conspirator as they’re already involved in removing Parler.
If Android is benign, how can people bypass Google Play Store and find/download Apps?