you can't easily protect your android phone from google. "google play" service is basically a process running as root. you can run custom ROMs but by installing gapps you're pretty much in the same situation.

There's an alternative but getting it done is not for the average user https://microg.org/ Google did a great job locking down users with android. I'm pretty much googleless and it's like dieting

You didn't and don't have to run google play or google services..

I use an LG V20 and have never once used play services. It's completely disabled.

Almost all my apps I get from 3rd party app stores, mainly fdroid and a few others. As well, I've had an old google account linked to a prepaid card and a phone that is rooted, and I used to download apps from play store with it, use an apk extractor, and send the apps to my new phone.

The days of this happening are not long for this world though, as more and more app devs are implementing safety net and forced play services checks. This really started happening around the pokemonGo time period. Some don't implement it correctly and you can still bypass it, but it's a real hassle..

A recent update broke a scanner app that I use to get alerted if a police scanner gets really busy.. I emailed the dev to ask why, they implied google is really pushing these safety checks now. Wonderful security, keeping us safe..

Even still, you only have to use play and play services if you plan on using the play store apps... I realize I'm an outlier, but then again, I've never been bothered by the few minutes longer it took me to login via mobile browser instead of just getting the app. Everyone makes choices about where and what they spend their time on.. I've always valued my privacy I suppose..