Hi! As non-rooted user, You have no choice other than installing Virtual Space or Virtual Machine. Or You can just 'JailBreak' Your Phone by Installing SuperSu or Custom ROMs.
- Use VPhoneGaga Instead; it has more compability for Apps and Games. Check it here: VPhoneGaga. If You wish to use Root in there, I suggest use the Mod Version such as: VPhoneGaga - VMos.
- Install Root to Pixel 2: Root Pixel 2: WallEye & Root Pixel 2 XL: Taimen (Check Your Pixel 2 Type first)
- Get Your phone a Custom ROMs that has atleast Android 9-11 to Avoid deprecation.Might check: LineAge OS 18.1 for Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 ROMs
- I see that You're not in favor of Virtual Machine. Sadly, Virtual Spaces are giving more problem as it's a Sandboxed Apps and not Sandboxed Android like Virtual Machine does. This means: it doesn't have a full Native Root ecosystem (For Daemon spawn) and also more poor in terms of Compability.
the rest are too laggy
Well to run Virtual Machine, You need more Memory (RAM) for smoother experience. From Reviews, Google Pixel has atleast 4GB Memory, this is pretty Standard. Virtual Machine are considered Mid-Heavy apps, to eliminate lags is to have a minimal 6/8GB RAM. Or You can Optimize Your phone:
- Removing Bloatware Apps and Services [Need Root]
- Set Unnecessary Apps to not Run in Background (Check Battery Settings for this) [No Root] or Disable the Apps using Shell command [Need Root]
- Force GPU Uses for Apps (Check Developer Settings), I see that Google Pixel 2 has a good Snapdragon 835 [No Root]
- Force OpenGL for Games (Check Developer Settings) [No Root]
- Set Apps Priority to 1 using Shell Comment [Need Root]
- Set SELinux to Permissive [Need Root]
Even to Fix lags, You still need Roots. Other than that, there's little for what You can do.