It's frustrating to see the bootloader situation in the US; it limits options for those of us who like to tinker. When considering older international models, ensure they have solid dev support for custom ROMs.
I honestly am actually ok with stock! I just want magisk!
My use case is pretty silly actually: I just want to be able to read my own Chrome session data! To do some "quantified self" exploration of how I use my device.
But The War Against General Purpose Computing has marched on and on and on, and that has gotten harder and harder and harder! I can't explore my own device, can't see my own file-system, without root. Which generally requires unlocking the bootloader. The light & hackerly possibility, ongoingly being squeezed out of this world by tech titans and governments. Alas.
Edit: it seems like half the things I use don't work with Magisk anymore either, even with hiding. What a horror show Google hath wrought against it's users. https://www.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/1bsfxle/discussion_...