Much of this blame goes on Android and some on iOS/Apple.
The phone/call permissions, especially for Android, were needed for any app that wants to suspend when a call comes in and for analytics/social libs.
I always hated that about Android especially because even harmless games made it look like you were taking contacts and monitoring calls.
Of course this would be abused and it is all over the place. Unfortunately lots of apps/games are specifically built to harvest data and this was a major flaw in their permissions handling. You shouldn't need a monitor phone calls permission to allow a call to come in over your app while someone is using or playing it.
The phone/call permissions, especially for Android, were needed for any app that wants to suspend when a call comes in and for analytics/social libs.
I always hated that about Android especially because even harmless games made it look like you were taking contacts and monitoring calls.
Of course this would be abused and it is all over the place. Unfortunately lots of apps/games are specifically built to harvest data and this was a major flaw in their permissions handling. You shouldn't need a monitor phone calls permission to allow a call to come in over your app while someone is using or playing it.