I’ll take part in the discussions, thanks!
Personally I do not insist on having a locked bootloader, but that is /e/'s general advice towards users according to the tutorials. And I do understand the end goal of enabling people to use /e/ with locked BL, but for now that also means locking them in on a system without a backup (correct me, if I’m wrong).
So to me it looks like my two points from above lead to
- Short-term: There’s no way around an unlocked bootloader, if I want backups. Additionally I have to decide right now when setting up, because I’d loose all app data, if I’d unlock the BL later on. Maybe an unlocked bootloader with encrypted storage is the better general advice for the time being?
- Long-term: Either way, a powerful backup solution for /e/ is critical, either to
- Elevate users with locked BLs from their backup-less state
- Enable users with unlocked BLs to lock without loosing all app data and backup functionality
P.S.: OMG, seedvault does look so awesome, check the video: https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/seedvault-encrypted-backup-for-android WANT