"How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies."
They're a limited liability company, so no stock market pressure. As a Dutch BV voting majority can still lie with the founders.
They're on Fairphone 5 now, which is the first one I'd consider buying if I was in the market for a new one phone right now.
Most people buy a new phone if it gets damaged from a drop. It happens quite often. Here you can swap the parts cheaply and with only a screwdriver.
If you wonder how sturdy it is: https://youtu.be/H1UJ5k3yMvA?si=zQ1VEeA8YqMINUR7
This one dives deeper into the lifecycle: https://youtu.be/lU4vv7qCQvg?si=XiE0QBWP6iNMbQJ_
You can find the Lifecycle Analysis of Frauenhofer institute with a bit of googling.
And here's Louis Rossman on it: https://youtu.be/EAogtqyN22M?si=9slIZEuTbAZhE__Y
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become "evil". It's not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can't escape.
The slowdown is write speed, if you read from the drive mostly, don't worry about it much.