It's really a question of what Google actually want to do with their phones. And frankly I'm not sure they know themselves.
The non-"a" Pixels are sold as flagships, and priced as such (maybe a little below Samsung flagships, but Sammy's release prices are silly, and drop fast enough that you should always wait a little). But they are never really competitive in hardware specs for the price. Of course you can argue that you pay for the better software support rather than fancier displays, greater storage or whatever, but to your average consumer who churns the phone for a new shiny when the contact expires (because hell, we're not drowning in waste and pollution at all, right?) how much is that worth?
The "a" models seem a better proposition. You get the same software support, a mid-range SoC (but who cares, since mid-range SoCs these days can handle everything most people want to do) and some practical advantages (headphone jack) in exchange for some modest bells and whistles. I'd say these are the true successor to the Nexus phones. To me that makes more sense than a not-quite-competitive flagship at flagship prices. If, when I next need to replace my phone, they are offering one of these which doesn't have some deal-breaker drawback such as inadequate storate then frankly it will be a no-brainer.
And if Google were serious about hardware sales frankly I think this is where they'd focus. They aren't serious enough about hardware to take the flagship market. They have the resources, but they've shown repeatedly that they don't have the focus. They are a software company. But mid-range hardware is actually good enough for almost everyone these days (including many who buy flagships), and good hardware plus excellent software will beat excellent hardware plus middling software every time. This is actually where they shine most. They just need to commit to it, and then think about what they'd need to offer to rule this sector, and they could actually achieve success in hardware for real.
(Disclosure: my current phone is a Pixel 2, 128 GB model with > 64 GB used. I appreciate the lean software stack. I don't care especially about Google apps and services, and disable a lot of them, including and especially Assistant. I probably won't buy a 4a anyway this year because although the Pixel 2's battery life is decreasing it still works fine otherwise and I hate creating waste unnecessarily. But if something like that with adequate storage is available when I next upgrade then that is what I'll be looking for. In the meanwhile my interest in this question is based on the hypothetical "what if something terminal happens to my phone?", which I always like to have an answer to).
