I have a couple of junker phones that came from being at some store or other when they were $10 for whatever reasons - and right at those times I could spare the $10, and that's about all there is to it except to say that they would have been great deals -IF- they could be rooted simply & were well enough made...
But they ain't.
My measuring stick for Android devices may seem strange (like me, right ??) :
It is my several $5 LG L34C phones which tick ALL needed boxes, except that they have tiny little screens.
(The L34C is head & shoulders ABOVE the K8 junker I am mostly posting here about IMO.)
The K8 came with Android 6, it is locked to US Cellular & can only be partially debloated via disabling stuff, which means it is best used as a single-purpose, wifi-only device.
It sat for quite some time until I just got a wifi camera to keep an eye out the front of our tiny apartment which is about 12' wide x 50' deep - but with 20' hallways to the front door & bathroom at the rear that eat up lots of space.
Using the cam & phone I can now see if/when the mail carrier, UPS guy, etc. arrive without having to open doors letting in the summer's heat & bugs - a great improvement IMO - except...
The K8 took on a forced update & now the notifications area at the top of its screen seems to be there - but does...
Nothing - it no longer opens.
Its there, showing battery, AP mode, BT, time & an underlined checkmark - and thats it.
Any clues for me as to why that function has become inert ??
Just to round this out - my other junker is a Stylo 3 - locked to Cricket.
It has a nice, BIG screen, Android 7 and is a right nasty piece of work IMO.
It became a wifi-only desk accessory recently to host a few apps like a wifi timed outlet & apps for accessing specific sites more conveniently...that is to say, until it imposed a 'connection not permitted' restriction on all wifi, then needed a full factory reset to get it out of boot looping - which of course lost any & everything I'd set it up for - and now it sits with wifi active again just to see if it will go sour once again.
(If it does, its a goner...)
Looks like the days of decent, lower priced & rootable Android devices are gone for good - how sad.