Could use some advice guys, I'm out of the loop and lost track with smartphones.

Are things like rooting phones and using custom ROMs just to have tiny bit of privacy and less bloat still done or are things different now?
Seems like not many talk about that anymore.

I might have looked at the wrong phones but it seems like the bloatware situation is worse than before.

Don't need 100% secure and private, I'm boring anyway and don't do illegal things.
So I'm just trying to see if it's still possible to get rid of some of it.
Is this still done or did people just give up on those things?