I see, yeah that works when I know I'll be in a situation for a while where I may want the option to say something or going over something like verbal brainstorming but I find I am much more often having a random thought and want to capture it right away without pulling out my phone or interrupting what I'm doing.

Can only hope google relaxes their limitations on choice of ai assistant. In the meantime I'm setting up a raspi with openwakeword to just act as an interface for voice to voice interactions for while I'm home.