sounds more like you're a fan of cheap phones.
a true stock lover would have bought a full price pixel.
I had a Nexus 4, 5, briefly a 6 (battery life was awful at the time), and my daughter still has my Nexus 7 somewhere (kids went iOS later).
I like stock Android. And I'm not a fan of TouchWiz or the bundled apps.
My wife got me a iPhone 6+ to try for my birthday a couple of years ago. I was admittedly envious of her battery life. Didn't like so many things:
Scroll speed is dirt slow in Safari vs Android/chrome (forums and blog stuff were the most irritating).
Manually organizing apps into folders like it is fucking Windows XP again... really missed my app drawer.
Missed my back button.
Apple making you use stock apps for things as the default.
I did realize I liked a physical home button though. Easier to find in the dark or in my pocket to wake up the phone, and no toggling it back onto the screen to go home.
Been using a Note 5 since, I sent back the iPhone, and I like it a lot. At the time it was the best battery life by far over a Nexus device. I epecially like Samsung pay with its card beaming service...it works almost everywhere by spoofing a card swipe if needed.
My wife wanted to switch back to Android again so we ordered a pair of s8+ on the Tmo BOGO deal. Not sure I want to upgrade yet myself. I like the location of the physical home button/fingerprint scanner on my Note 5 and it still runs well.
I mean, I like stock Android, but TouchWiz is only mildly annoying, the settings menu and the pulldown shade are inferior, but manageable.