I agree with your experience, for you, and for others some things I changed/added/searched:
-For the homescreen I used a new launcher. The googlesearchbar isnt removable with the normal launcher. (I used “lawnchair”)
-The Newssite is easy to deactivate… long press and use the launchersettings.
-googlelogo on the keyboard is because there is only the google-keyboard “Gboard”. Im still looking for an other keyboard to use, till now I didnt find anything good. Perhaps someone other has an idea?
-I looked for an app to dim the light more. Im not finished with this, but “dimmer”, also availabel on F-Droid, did a good job till now (It can’t.
-For me, the navigation bar uses too much place and I was looking for a way to hide it. I found some stuff and thought, lets write a post in the forum:
Yeah… till now I really like the fp3, it used some work to be ready and I got to find a Keyboard that matches with me still, but it works, is doing what it should and this not only just, but good 