I completely agree with you. Selling my Zenfone 9 on eBay right now though, because they’ve decided to stop us from unlocking the bootloader.
I refuse to use Android as stock, so now I’ve gone and bought a Pixel 6 Pro. Not looking forward to the size as my 4a 5G is already too big, but hoping 4x camera is worth all the trade offs.
My ZF9 and the ZF8 are the best phones I’ve ever had apart from the aforementioned flaw. The ZF8 had problems with overheating and battery life, but the ZF9 completely solved those. The size is perfect, and the headphone jack is just a necessity. Gutted to have to give it up, but I’ve completely lost faith in Asus thanks to the bootloader bullshit