I think this was meant to point out that trading ads for system wide tracking isn’t necessarily a deal you are forced to make if you are a person who is motivated not to make that deal. For most people avoiding tracking isn’t even a thought. Their first order of business is inviting Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok to the party.
AFAIU it's all F-Droid apps that are GPS-free. I rely on a small handful of others installed from the Aurora, Google Play is a requirement for some of those.
I may be hallucinating that shim, though I'm pretty sure it actually exists...
"...I rely on a small handful of others installed from the Aurora, Google Play is a requirement for some of those."
Later thought. I also occasionally install Play Store apps via Aurora Store and it's worth noting that some state that they require Google Play Services but in fact they do work without it (I normally have GPS/Google Play disabled or uninstalled).
I've not bothered to research why but I presume it's the reporting mechanism that's not working, the core operation of these programs being independent of GPS (presumably this would simplify programming if the programmer is also coding the program for iPhone).
I'd be most interested if you or anyone else has more info about this.
I have been running Graphene for years and find that few proprietary apps really need GAPS. I get a warning that it is required when they try to serve an ad, but I just dismiss it and enjoy the ad free experience. Graphene has great shims and even a sandboxed Google Play Services for those who want a lot of notifications. I don't use it myself, but my partner does.