For weather, I use Weather Timeline. I have all of my photos backup to Google Photos with unlimited storage (as long as you allow them to slightly compress the images), and I use Google Rewards to answer surveys and get store credit.
I stick within the Google ecosystem primarily. The only other apps on my phone are banking and social media apps.
EDIT:
Here's my current setup:

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Wallpaper was created using Kustom Live Wallpaper (pro app). Music widget is a random music widget I found that someone made using Kustom Widget. Icon pack is ARTo and again, the weather app is Weather Timeline.
(Also using Nova Launcher.)