I’m well aware that it’s available to install on all phones, but I’m also fairly sure that other OEMs do use it as the default dialer, too. I saw it preinstalled on one of my mom’s phones, either her current midrange Samsung, or her previous Xiaomi.
except that it does. some OEMs like Samsung serve their own (or at least Samsung used to; not sure if it’s still true), but it’s definitely available on non-Google-branded phones.
it was a free app, wasn’t owned by Facebook from the beginning (they’ve acquired it in 2013), and it offered data saving, so it was a tempting install for people with small data plans.
that’s cool, but also not relevant to running custom ROMs. I’m using a Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS myself, but custom ROM support is much better when it comes to Pixels, regardless of how ethically they’ve been produced and how many external displays they support.
also why would I check for newsletter subscription options after I’ve created an account? first of all, I’ve already unchecked the box during the registration process, and second, I’m using a throwaway email address that I’ll deactivate once I’m done with the hotel anyway.
even if you deny all those permissions, they’ll still be able to track everything what you do in the app, which is enough to build a profile on you including interests, social graph, and even personality traits.
TL;DR “buy our VPN”