I think important to remember when comparing against custom ROMs is that people using these are known to be more tech savvy, and to be interested in greater pri

I think important to remember when comparing against custom ROMs is that people using these are known to be more tech savvy, and to be interested in greater privacy. With android, google assumes many users are don't want to configure privacy settings, and if they encounter them by mistake, might break something. It is better to leave these hidden. This obviously has unfortunate implications, but from the article's description it doesn't sound so bad.