[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] psychic_quark:
Steps that I followed to get it up and running

Clean install steps, WILL destroy ALL data, make backups!! before performing any of this and as always YMMV

0: (optional) Update firmwares/radios etc. to latest

0.1: Download latest stock package. [URL: https://www.essential.com/developer/current-builds]

0.2: Unzip to a location and modify the install script flashall.sh(*nix)/flashall.bat(win) to remove the reboot line (last line)

0.3: Reboot to bootloader: Keep pressing vol down + power buttons OR adb reboot bootloader via a privileged OS terminal.

0.3: Run the install script with admin privs: sudo ./flashall.sh(*nix) OR (run as admin) flashall.bat(win)

0.4: Reboot bootloader: Keep pressing vol down, select using power button hen you see the option OR fastboot reboot-bootloader

1: Erase userdata: sudo fastboot -w

1.1: (very optional) check slot to make sure we are in slot a (sudo fastboot getvar current-slot), if not then boot to slot a.

2: Install twrp to boot (fastboot flash boot TWRP-SEP.img or latest twrp image) (Note: I use that specific twrp image because the touchscreen works for me YMMV)

3: Boot to twrp using vol up/down buttons and power button to make the selection.

Now we are within TWRP and hopefully touch works, if the touch doesn't work, try to use a different TWRP build or try to use adb shell commands, indicated below (where applicable)

4: Here we wipe and format everything (if no touch then adb shell twrp wipe <system/data>)

4.1: Format data (Any adb shell commands to achieve a similar result?, "adb shell twrp wipe data" maybe)

4.1.1: (optional) format data to f2fs

4.2: Wipe system (adb shell twrp wipe system)

5: We start copying and initial installing ROM files to device, (adb push <file> /sdcard/)

5.1: Copy and install file: Lineageos rom [URL: https://download.lineageos.org/mata]

5.2: Copy and install file: TWRP installer [URL: https://dl.twrp.me/mata/]

6: Reboot to recovery, this should boot back up to twrp (any adb shell command to achieve this?) (Note: This step is needed otherwise gapps installation *may* fail later)

7: Now we copy and install rest of the files to device in order. (adb push <file> /sdcard/) OR (if sideloading: adb sideload <file>)

7.1: Here you get to choose if you don't want google integration (Lucky You!)

7.1.1: (optional) Copy and install file: <nanodroid> if you are interested in going the microg route. [URL: https://nanolx.org/nanolx/nanodroid]

7.1.2: (optional) Copy and install file: <OpenGapps pico> (or whatever you want man). [URL: https://opengapps.org/]

7.2: (optional, needed if disabling forced encryption) Copy and install file: DM verity_forceencrypt zip file (download zip from github and remove .git files and recompress to .zip, making sure the filename is (without quotes): "Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt_master" [URL: https://github.com/Zackptg5/Disable_Dm-Verity_ForceEncrypt/archive/master.zip]

7.3: (optional, needed if root is desired or if disabling forced encryption in 7.2) Copy and install file: <Magisk stable> [URL: https://xdaforums.com/apps/magisk]

7.4: (optional, untested, may break OTA) Perform step 5.2 again if you want to maintain TWRP as recovery.

8: Reboot to system.

8.1: (optional) If device is consistently bootlooping (Note: 2-4 interim reboots are normal), then GOTO step 1.

8.2: (optional) If a system app is force closing, try to erase its data and cache first, otherwise GOTO step 1.

profit?? (and/or optionally cry over wasted time in this possibly pointless exercise)