Can I tour your bunker?

I prefer to send electronics to e-waste recycling (or reuse for some task where security doesn’t matter) rather than a landfill, but I’m with you in principle: If the authorities get it out of your possession, the hardware is compromised.

trying to explain to my wife why we should buy a new phone every time we visit her family

If you really don’t need much room a persistent operating system on a USB stick can be very clutch.

Shouldn’t you also reinstall the boot loader for the same reason as you’d bin the phone?

Speak of the devil. This article is from two days ago.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/07/secure-boot-is-completely-compromised-on-200-models-from-5-big-device-makers/