For native sync, the two good and reputable alternatives are Bitwarden and Proton Pass

Yes. If you don’t agree with the CEO, keep in mind that he is not the owner, they moved to a nonprofit structure. Proton’s CEO is not the first one saying stupid things, the same happened with Mozilla, Brave, and perhaps many other reputable groups.

Proton products are good, IMHO the layout is OK.

It’s good, but not the only one. If you don’t feel comfortable with Proton, go to Mailbox.org, Posteo, Tuta. They are smaller, with less products on their portfolio, but reputable and as good as Proton.