Regardless of the distribution, would it be possible to have a phone that can be simplified to include only the features you want? For example, I would only want a calendar, notes, a calculator, calls and messages. I wouldn’t want a browser, an app store or any other way to easily install them. Is this possible on a Linux mobile distro? Does it require a lot of work, like making a specific distro for it?
Linux feels like a great option for this because it can leave enough freedom to dumb down what you don’t need while also keeping a big level of customization, not everyone needs are the same regarding to dumbphones
Remove the store app and replace it with a daemon which does the updates in background.
If it’s a pure Linux phone then apps would be installed through the command line and could be easily auto updated via a script.
So if you don’t install a terminal emulator on the phone itself and only access the command line through something like SSH. You wouldn’t have to worry about an app store at all ideally?