Not sure how many people were suffering from it, but Google Photos became adamant about pushing ads. I couldn’t find a replacement in Google Store which wasn’t doing the same. Downloaded F Droid, used alternative to website to find apps, downloaded and now the problem is solved. You can use Google Files to install the F Droid apk to start your journey of degoogling. I’m still using some proprietary apps which work with the Android UI such as Google’s Wallet but everything I could replace I did (unless I’d inconvenience myself like with Contacts). The open source apps have much better UIs and don’t bombard me with ads or other stuff the big corp wants to push like their accounts. I wish I had done it sooner and this post was made to encourage other people to do that. I tried Aurora Store, but Google doesn’t let me login. It tells me it would give me a popup to type a number into, but the popup never comes. Anyone knows what app pushes the popup? Is Aurora a full replacement for Play Store or do I need to have both installed?
I don’t think it’s possible for Google to link Aurora use to your account - especially if you don’t log in to play services. Aurora uses anonymous accounts.
Unfortunately, the Aurora accounts are rate limited. That’s a pain because Google has the shitty policy of geo-locking its apps for no good reason. Honestly, Google should be torn apart into a hundred tiny companies for its antitrust practices.
I just read up on it a bit more - seems you can use your Google account with Aurora store, but don’t have to. I’m guessing, then, people were using their Google accounts via Aurora store for in-app purchases or similar, and Google were able to bust them that way.