As someone in the market for a car, I’m appalled at how much BS they all have. Neither of my current cars have any wireless functionality aside from the AM/FM radio and TPMS, yet even base model newer cars have wireless crap everywhere.
Likewise for TVs, I have a smart TV because we use the apps, and it’s old enough that it doesn’t have a microphone, so data collection is limited (I guess they can see the Netflix and Disney+ stuff we watch). I’m hoping to buy a newer TV, and pretty much everything is a privacy nightmare. I just want an option to stream video from my NAS, and that’s about as much as I need.
phones
This is honestly one of the better times for phones. Linux phones are almost daily driveable, GrapheneOS on Pixels is pretty much ideal, and even stock Android gives way more options to reduce app access than just 10 years ago.
credit cards
This is one area that I’m not going to budge on. Credit cards are just way too convenient, so I use virtual card numbers for online stuff and just deal with the privacy leaks elsewhere.
It’s still totally possible to go without a credit card, and I’ll hopeful that cryptocurrencies or digital payments will improve in a privacy-respecting way (I’m told in India, you can pay using a QR code, so hopefully that means virtual cards could be used at the POS).
But yeah, like you said, it’s a spectrum. Don’t compromise on what’s most important to you, and compromise a little on the others where convenience wins out.