Definitely try the “swipe” navigation. I had no idea the other (old?) navigation scheme existed as it has probably been a decade now. I vaguely remember one of my old phones introducing it, and that was the end of the buttons on the bottom. Did the non-stock versions of Android not do that?
I still miss buttons, but with how tall/wide the screens are, the question is where do you put them. I really need to try and get a smaller phone once this one dies…