That sort of thing should be called out in (1-star) reviews.
The Samsung Gear app is like that, for example. You need it if you want to tweak the settings for their Galaxy Buds headset (the ambient sound level, for example), but on first startup it prompts for what appear to be all the permissions needed for every kind of Samsung device, including things like smartwatches—calendar, contacts, notifications, the works. If you deny any permission the app refuses to start, even though none of that is necessary for the task at hand.
My workaround was to install it and then immediately disable all Internet access (airplane mode), adjust the settings, and then purge the app from the phone before turning the network back on. Fortunately the settings are persistent even without a constant connection to the app. I think that should be sufficient to avoid any unwanted data leakage, but it's a lot of work for relatively minor benefit, and the process must be repeated any time the settings need to be adjusted.
The Samsung Gear app is like that, for example. You need it if you want to tweak the settings for their Galaxy Buds headset (the ambient sound level, for example), but on first startup it prompts for what appear to be all the permissions needed for every kind of Samsung device, including things like smartwatches—calendar, contacts, notifications, the works. If you deny any permission the app refuses to start, even though none of that is necessary for the task at hand.
My workaround was to install it and then immediately disable all Internet access (airplane mode), adjust the settings, and then purge the app from the phone before turning the network back on. Fortunately the settings are persistent even without a constant connection to the app. I think that should be sufficient to avoid any unwanted data leakage, but it's a lot of work for relatively minor benefit, and the process must be repeated any time the settings need to be adjusted.