[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] easybullet3:
wow!! really, i wasnt expecting such a detailed reply.

honestly, thank you very much for the time and effort you put into your reply. (really, no offence taken at your harshness).

and hopefully others that stumble on this subject (in my position) will learn from the input on this thread.

OK.

the only thing that you wont like to hear, is about security, i'm still not worried about it as much as yourself...

(but everything else you said, I agree with)

[About the Security topic]

my reason:

i know tonnes of people who are on ICS or Jellybean still (because that is what came with their phone). they maybe upgraded once (from Gingerbread to ICS, or from ICS to Jellybean).

all these people i know are way less technical than I am !! and they wouldnt have a clue how to update their phones that they have been carrying around for 4+ years.

there must be litterally millions of people around each country (grandparents, non-tech people, kids of around 8 to 12 years old with a smart phone). and all on the same stock version of android that originally came with their phones.

(Android Version 'Market Share', currently shows 50% of the market using kit-kat and beyond... and the remaining 50% using jellybean and before).

[source: wikipedia Android Version Page]

so, not wanting to have the latest android version (coz of improved security) means I am in the same boat as half of all the worlds android users.

anyway... no point wasting time about security. that is the only part I am of a different opinion with you. (and even if you feel I am being silly,,, I am not a worrier,,, even if they get my contacts and start annoying my friends or emailing whoever or deleting my facebook or reading my emails. or even pleasuring themselves to my family photos,, honestly i am not gonna lose any sleep over it).

i'm sure most people dont want that. and of course i dont either. but also i'm not sacrifice the speed of my phone (which I use so many times per day), just coz I feel safer about security with a more recent OS that my phone is trying to keep-up with (resulting in a slowly user experience).

Everything else that you said really ressonated with me.

i only know the TouchWiz and Nova. so Yes, I will try holo or L launcher or mini launcher.

Currently I have Lolipop and Nova and a basic Gapps package and about 50 apps downloaded.. (though many are not being used).

i have this hunch, that (for me) my best option will end up being a simple return to a Jelly Bean Custom (unbloated) Rom, with a launcher that doesnt hog the RAM too much.

My 50 Apps on the phone will probably end up being more like 30 in the end after I have weeded out the bad ones.

if I can find a good KitKat Rom that is stable, unbloated and highly recommended, then I might be happy with that too ;)

PS: Ok, i wont bragg about my amazing supersonic 1GB system partition and 6GB of data.. Lol .. (ok,, sorry,, couldnt resist)..

PPS: seriously,, this lollipop is crazy battery drain on my phone! it ran out in under an hour!! just one photo was eating up 1% each time!

i had way more apps (with ICS and Jellybean last month) and never had this kind of battery drain !

sorry for the long winded reply.

(kind of a thanks for your original replies) :)

I will report my findings here.. but it may be slow,, coz I dont have much time for app data saving, and backups this next week.