+1 for Pixel. it has the best android support with a lot of great google features. Also Sony while kinda overpriced, can be found second hand for much more reasonable price. it has really good battery life, sd card support and a headphone jack with good sound quality. I think Nothing Phone is just a gimmick with really good marketing and fancy look.
That said, Android is only worth it if you want to do geeky things like sideloading apps painlessly (i.e. NewPipe is just the tip of the iceberg, tons of great stuff not available on the play store) have a need for custom launchers, a proper file manager, a terminal, uncensored manga reader, block ads at the system level, etc...
There is plenty of things that makes Android worthwhile.
However if all this does not appeal to you, iOS is noticeably nicer to use IMO.