Any Android phone will be spied on by Google so long as Play Services are installed with elevated privileges(aka 99.9% of phones being commerically sold). At least with Pixels you don't have OEM bloatware on top of that.

For those inclined for more privacy, Pixels are one of the only phones that allow you to install de-googled Custom Roms without compromising the Android security model.

note that i said "doesn't come loaded with trash spyware"

Google might have some spyware (e.g. play store). But it's not trash. I trust them to not get hacked (definitely more than Samsung or Huawei)

They also afaik have better support for replacing the stock firmware (although I've never done that)