No, Aurorastore is still worlds more private than Google Play, and until now it was really reliable!
It runs as an unprivileged user app and uses randomized accounts. You can add all apps you dont want Google to know of to your blocklist, so the unique fingerprint from your app list is extremely reduced. Google Play doesnt do that. Aurora is WAY better for privacy
For security yeah, you can use google play and add the signatures to VerifiedApps