I have a Kobo Aura 2, and I love it. That’s my first ebook reader, and I haven’t had any other one since.
Personally I avoid Amazon because I definitely don’t wanna get tied to them. I’m not sure if this is still true, but when I got my ebook reader, these were my choices:
get a non-Amazon device, and I can read anything except books from Amazon
get an Amazon device, and I can only read books from Amazon
So it was a no-brainer for me. One of the best purchases I’ve ever made.
You can get ebooks from any source (well, not considering the AI generated crap that Amazon is getting flooded with; if you want that, you need to get a Kindle), and your computer/smartphone will handle it as a standard USB storage device, so you can simply copy over your ebooks.