If I’ve learned something about selfhosting and backups it is that you can trust HDDs to spin for 3-5 years and should still do backups. I myself do backups to HDDs that are only powered on for these backups. I’m still not sure if thats enougth.

Raid is more for an always-on solution, but not great for safe backups. They still might get damaged at the same time, because you bought them at the same time, from the same vendor and they have the same usage time.

I’ve got android one and was also stuck with the Google search bar. I’m using lawnchair for years now, works great, is very customizable and opensource. Just put the searchbar you like on the homescreen. https://lawnchair.app/

You can also find it on f-droid