One has to read carefully some recent Security bulletins but some jaded readers might conclude that Google wishes to be a little less helpful to AOSP users.
If I brick my phone, can I easily restore the
Use of “brick” implies non user restorable. Fairphone’s recently quoted price to reimage was 52€. This would likely occur in the case of an anti-rollback error on locking.
A simple failure, say, to run an install script successfully to completion would likely leave the phone non usable but with working Fastboot mode from which one can recover to /e/OS or to stock Android as per the guide you saw.
Some “re-explanations” here (answered) Install /e/ on FP5 with newer Security Patches . It is simply based on “never go back” … thus “more recent” is OK.