The Pixel 5 is not much more expensive and is still a great phone with good battery life and good camera, and the last Pixel small enough to used one-handed. It also has wireless charging which is missing on the 4a.
If your friend isn't gaming or doing anything CPU-intensive the P5 is what I would reccommend today. Everything afterwords has been an incremental upgrade for significantly more money.
Dude it's less than four years old lol I get what you are saying but Q3 2020 is not that long ago.