I’ve been using FX for a few years. I haven’t really compared it to the others because it does what I need with little fuss and no ads or other annoyances.

It can access network file shares and you can use a split screen view for easy file copying. It also has a basic text editor and media player, though I don’t really use those.

Yup, it does notifications… Not familiar with that software though.

Tinkering is optional. It has basic settings like a few watch faces to choose from, screen timeout, and things like that. It basically just works. Bluetooth pairing with Gadgetbridge is easy. The firmware was buggy in earlier versions with Bluetooth losing connection a lot, but it’s very solid now.

Flashing firmware updates is probably the most technical thing a user would be faced with, but there’s not much to it and the device automatically reverts to the last good firmware if something goes wrong.

I don’t mean to sound like a sales pitch here. Just saying it’s not like running Linux where there are a lot of options and technical details the user can get wrong.

I agree that it’s not what most people want, but that’s mainly because it’s pretty basic, lacks features, components like the screen aren’t as nice as other watches, etc.

It’s very stable and reliable for what it does, though. I’ve been using it as a daily driver watch, timer, alarm, etc. for a couple of years.

Maybe the thing to do here, when web sites start enforcing this, is to swamp them with support requests. Don’t write a screed or manifesto with ethical or technical reasons why this is wrong. Pretend to be a non-technically-inclined user and tell them you’ve spent hours trying to get it to work and your browser keeps throwing up errors you don’t understand. They will ignore the principles, but if they think the technology is “too hard” for their “dumb users,” that might carry more weight.