Is iOS -> GrapheneOS worth it if losing iMessage

I’m coming in late on this conversation. Sorry I missed it earlier. For many months, I made my GOS phone my main phone but kept my old iPhone. My iPhone still had my old phone number. I used an app called BlueBubbles to get my iMessages and SMS/RCS texts on my GOS phone. I used call forwarding on my iPhone to forward incoming calls to a VoIP number on my GOS phone. This worked great until I lost my iPhone (that’s another story). I decided to give up on iMessage rather than purchase another iPhone at that point.