Everyone’s nostalgic for Nougat — the cat-collecting easter egg, the Pixel’s unlimited photo backup, the last Android before “gestures ruined everything.” But nostalgia lies. Android 9 Pie was braver than any Android release in years. It killed the three-button navigation bar that had defined Android since 2008. It baked Digital Wellbeing into the OS when critics were calling smartphone addiction a public health crisis. And it used on-device AI to manage your battery in ways Doze never could.