The goo wasn’t pink, iirc.

I’ve used it on a Redmi Note 8 for 2 years, and am using it on a Samsung Tablet. I never had any issue.

My question is that is this a USA only thing? Or is it practised in other nations as well?

Is carrier locking an America-only thing? I have never seen this in India, and have never heard of this in any European country either.

There is no objective answer to that. Maybe tell us your needs, use case.

Both of them aren’t good enough for privacy use cases. Using something like Universal Android Debloater is recommended.

If possible, buy a used device on which you can install official LineageOS.