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Freestyle is hard with bad shoulders. I have snuck up on it, and now can do a few laps after I've warmed up. Breast stroke shouldn't be bad, and you can limit your stroke to angles that don't hurt.
fwiw when I got in the pool I literally was floating on my back and walking in the shallow end. That was all my back could take. There is a reason that the seniors do water aerobics - it is as low impact as it gets and it works. Then I started doing very slow breast stroke with limited range of motion. Now I've worked up to being able to do full motion though I have to be careful about the kick and my hip (bike injury). Back in the day I used to do eggbeater kick/exercises but my chiro said "no no no" - that I'd end up hurting my knees or hips. Turns out she was right. As usual.
Public pools take a certain amount of turning a blind eye. The good thing is that there is enough chlorine to kill most any bug. I wear flip flops from the locker room to the pool and back, and into the showers before and after. So far no creeping crud but no way I'd be walking around barefoot other than the few feet from the wall where I hang my towel and leave my flip flops to the water.
Before the acute back issues I was swimming once or twice a week and I really didn't see that much benefit. Every day though has been inspiring and transformational. If you can swing it, I think it is worth challenging yourself to hit the pool every day for a month and see what happens.
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