[Ajedi32]

This is... pretty much entirely false. You don't need SMS permissions to get access to the filesystem. Also, SMS access (like most sensitive permissions in modern Android) is disabled by default when you install the app, so GP's list is just a list of permissions Emacs can theoretically request, not permissions it actually has on install. (Not sure what functionality Emacs has that requires SMS access, but I'm guessing there is some optional feature that lets you send texts or something.)

Generally these days when Android apps request permissions they don't need it's because they're either old or poorly written; not because Android doesn't have more granular APIs available. For example, applications requesting full file system access when all they need is the ability to read and write to a user-selected file (which requires absolutely zero permissions now thanks to the documents provider API) is a personal pet peeve of mine. Ditto for services that ask for permission to run continuously in the background when they could just use WorkManager or similar, or IOT apps that ask for location permissions when they could be using the Nearby Connections API.