The real answer to a good Android alternative is probably not another android fork, but another Linux distro, like SailfishOS that the Jolla Phone ships with: https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-sep-ii-2026 It has support for Android apps though, so you can still use your bank app (probably), but it runs them in sandboxes

I’m not sure exactly. It could be related to how the AT protocol also takes account information into federation, but I’m just speculating here

The big added benefit is that its federated using the AT protocol. So while you join a local instance (or, knot), or even set one up yourself, you still get all the benefits that GitHub currently provides around making coding social and discoverable, unlike other alternatives like forgejo. So it’s not doing anything to git itself, but rather the layer on top, the forge