My wife is in the market for a new phone. Her highest priority is that it’s small. She has it narrowed down to a Galaxy S23 or a Zenphone 10. The Samsung is the safe bet, especially since she’s upgrading from an S10e. And even so, we can just got to T-mobile and play with one. The Zenphone is a bit riskier as it’s unfamiliar. But it’s small and gets great reviews. All of the options under “where to buy” have you buy it through, say, Target or Walmart, but it’s online only. So she wouldn’t be able to play with it until after unboxing and setting it up.
I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill here my man. Having no questions asked 14 days to see if you like not only the form factor but also the stock OS sounds pretty good. I think it’d be just as annoying to hold the phone for 5 minutes, buy it, and then find out later you have gripes with the OS that you don’t like.
Even though you think it’s annoying to do, it might be worth the trouble to atleast try the phone you aren’t familiar with.