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Custom ROMs have had just about enough of being Android's second-class citizens
(www.androidauthority.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
A manufacturer's Android can have special privileges for their own apps, and almost will certainly have special privileges for Google's apps.
Graphene by default wouldn't give special privileges to any app, so that's at least a plus.
It's true that it would be locked down, but you at least have a couple more controls over how locked down compared to a manufacturer's OS.