Just because a device stops receiving security updates does not automatically mean its instantly unsafe to use. Unless you are a high profile target or a serious exploit comes out you can probably safely still use that device for quite awhile. If you want to be confident in your security then that might require some extra steps on your part monitoring what exploits are being released but with a hugely popular device like the Pixel I doubt that is very difficult. Tons of people are going to be using them regardless without any thought to security.
That being said this whole 3 years of security updates is of course totally stupid and we deserve more. And manufacturers look to be realizing this. But if the rest of the phone hardware wise is also on a similar obsolescence cycle then is software updates the real problem here?
Our devices are becoming more and more disposable in many ways and we need to target the root of the problem - if you can easily replace your battery and your 5 year old phone still does everything you need then there will be much more consumer demand in turn for longer software update support.
That being said this whole 3 years of security updates is of course totally stupid and we deserve more. And manufacturers look to be realizing this. But if the rest of the phone hardware wise is also on a similar obsolescence cycle then is software updates the real problem here?
Our devices are becoming more and more disposable in many ways and we need to target the root of the problem - if you can easily replace your battery and your 5 year old phone still does everything you need then there will be much more consumer demand in turn for longer software update support.