welp, turns out i was wrong, thanks for the heads up
after some fiddling, i found that the voice recorder app i used to test where the microphone was only utilized the top microphone, while calls and voice messages (at least on signal) use the bottom one
I don't know where you got that idea, there's definitely a mic on the bottom. The top mic hole is just for noise cancellation. Google even has an interactive diagram here https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/7157629?hl=en#zippy=%2Cpixel-pro
welp, turns out i was wrong, thanks for the heads up
after some fiddling, i found that the voice recorder app i used to test where the microphone was only utilized the top microphone, while calls and voice messages (at least on signal) use the bottom one