Honestly, the Pixel line has always been meh (in my opinion, of course). They built a ton of respect on the Nexus line, which genuinely was a decent set of phones; now they've squandered it on a bunch of overpriced and underspeced options.
Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, etc all make great phones. You don't have to get a Google.
Unfortunately there are few options if you want a more “vanilla style” Android experience like the Pixel has, without significant OS customizations or pushing of me-too ecosystem apps/features. To my knowledge it’s mainly just Fairphone if you’re ok with not getting flagship specs and Sony if you’re ok with paying a bit more (but getting excellent camera controls in exchange).
Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, etc all make great phones. You don't have to get a Google.