If we were going to rank our priorities, they would be in this order:
1) Make mass surveillance impossible.
2) Stop targeted attacks against crypto nerds.
It's not that we don't find #2 laudable, but optimizing for #1 takes precedence when we're making decisions.
If you don't want to use your phone number, don't use it. You can register with any GV, Twilio, Voicepulse, or other throwaway VoIP number.
If you don't want to run Chrome, use Chromium instead.
If you don't want to use Google Play Services, use GcmCore.
The world you want this software for is not the world that everyone else lives in. You can certainly make it work in that world with a little effort, but because of how we've prioritized our objectives, that's not the default experience.
1) Make mass surveillance impossible.
2) Stop targeted attacks against crypto nerds.
It's not that we don't find #2 laudable, but optimizing for #1 takes precedence when we're making decisions.
If you don't want to use your phone number, don't use it. You can register with any GV, Twilio, Voicepulse, or other throwaway VoIP number.
If you don't want to run Chrome, use Chromium instead.
If you don't want to use Google Play Services, use GcmCore.
The world you want this software for is not the world that everyone else lives in. You can certainly make it work in that world with a little effort, but because of how we've prioritized our objectives, that's not the default experience.