I strongly disagree with this comment. I’ll answer your numbered points from the original post one by one with my perspective:

1. Development would happen completely in the open, since its community driven
2. A community android fork wouldn’t directly solve the issue of manufacturer locked bootloaders, but neither would Linux mobile
3. I originally messed up on this bullet point, but this is the correction - the play integrity API would be unusable on both community driven Android and Linux mobile
4. Developer verification will not apply to devices running an OS that isn’t Google certified, which a community maintained android fork would not be

Do you disagree with any of these? Would love to hear your thoughts

Can you help me understand why Linux phones are the answer rather than a community maintained android fork?

Android is already fully featured and has a solid ecosystem so it’s usable now, not in 5-10 years with less of a need for adjustment for the people who want to switch.

Basically, why take several steps backwards and start from scratch?