Your point would be correct if that was the only telemetry being collected. The pile of stuff most things are sending back home contains much that would not be

Your point would be correct if that was the only telemetry being collected. The pile of stuff most things are sending back home contains much that would not be useful here but is potentially privacy breaking (or just purely for marketing purposes with no intention of being useful to the user). Similarly, in either case telemetry is fine if it is opt-in, and if extra is collected the opt-in is repeated (i.e. no stalking via the back door by changing what is collected and sent home after consent is given).