I would actually advise anyone not to buy phones where the manufacturer doesn’t allow bootloader unlocking (e. g. HMD) or where the phone gets permanently damaged/modified once you unlock the bootloader (e. g. Samsung). The only power a consumer holds is purchasing power, so the more people refuse to buy locked-down hardware, the more incentive there is to offer hardware with unlockable bootloaders.

My personal recommendation would be Pixel phones, due to excellent GrapheneOS support, but their regional availability seems to be limited and the quality of the hardware could be a lot better (e. g. the battery of my Pixel 5 failed just after the warranty period; luckily iFixit provides genuine replacements and I managed to replace it myself, but this replacement wasn’t easy and it has become even more difficult with newer Pixel phones).