alt Hacker NewsThe problem is less with phoning home per se, and more about doing it in a way that's against user expectations. I already acknowledged that there are legitimate use cases out there, but for the overwhelming majority of users, their phone is primarily a communication and media consumption device, which doesn't need 24/7 background access. Yes, it's tragic that the handful of people are being harmed by this, but it's hardly because of "spite" as OP suggested.
The problem is that I'm only theoretically harmed by things that unexpectedly succeed in phoning home, while I'm absolutely harmed by things failing to phone home when I need them to do so.
Dollars I have lost due to things phoning home against my expectations: Close to zero -- if not literally zero. (And close to zero time spent managing that.)
Dollars I have lost due to things failing to phone home when I want them to do so: More than zero. (And hours and hours of time spent trying to make them work more reliably.)