[arm]

“And I expect users to uninstall the app or live with the consequences. Because what other option is there?”

There are other options that Android could have explored, as already mentioned in this submission’s comment thread. For example, this post by qznc:

“My solution is to use CyanogenMod (now LineageOS) and deny access when apps request it. To applications it looks like they can access my contacts, but if I deny it, they only get to see an empty list.”

As you mentioned, there’s no need for two mobile operating systems that don’t give you control over what apps you can run and how you can run them. If Android gave users the option to block permissions for apps without informing the app that the permission has been denied, it would give Android users more control over their phones and the apps running on them, not less.

[izacus]

But as I wrote again - this is available by default in Android since version 6.0. It even behaves the same way (you get empty contacts etc if the app doesn't use APIs explicitly.)