So stick had to come out. The full filesystem access is now reserved for apps that manage full filesystem (e.g. file explorers) and that's it. Scoped storage APIs were introduced in 2013, 11 years ago and Play started enforcing them in 2020, so the experiment with scary warnings was running for 7 years and developers refused to give up on that sweet full private file access.
Granted, SAF is quite a shitty API.
Seems like a perfect fit for SAF.
I really can't agree with Google in this particular case.
I grew up when computers didn't babysit me and tried to act like the good old GDR, knowing every thing better than their citicens.
Nowadays, I feel more and more hindered by computers, not enabled. Computers used to be a production device (I could create things with them).
Phones are not a computer - phones are a just "consume like we want you to" device.
The problem is, I want my phone to be a creation device. A device that allows me to create content, text, to do lists, shopping lists, ideas and store them. And(!) sync them using the tools I decide to use. And not force me to use tools I friggin hate, because they just don't get the job done.
I want to be able to get all data from my phone - regardless of what it is and what app put it there.
If I decide to only sync specific folders. So be it. But I want to be able to sync "/"
The risk here isn't misuse of the data, it's that some exploit is found in the code, and the additional protection of limiting its filesystem access is marginal (but nice to have).
Almost by definition, the people who argue strongly for free use of their hardware and software are almost never the same people who argue strongly for safety and security restrictions. You seem to be frustrated by a contradiction or inconsistency that doesn't exist.
It's true that Google can't win the hearts of both sides, but they surely know that -- you don't need to get so personally frustrated on their behalf. It's just a company with a product in a market, and the market is never going to be uniform.
There's very few permissions on android that are system/privileged/preinstalled.
OS vendors shouldn't make it impossible to create apps that have unlimited access to the filesystem or that suck battery in the background. There are reasons users might want to run apps that do either or both - a file indexer, for example. All the OS should do is ask the user if the app has permission to do those things.
An app store provider on the other hand might reasonably have many criteria for inclusion, such as F-Droid only allowing FOSS. This only becomes problematic when the app store in question is effectively a monopoly.
Except SAF is slow as hell, working on multiple files means separate calls for every little thing like file size via java API. Means everything going to be VERY slow and drain battery a lot. I've seen test from 2019 where directory listing operation is 25-50 times slower in SAF
I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's not exactly a secret when you bought it.
There really is: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5.
And it's my daily driver.
Flash your favorite open firmware, enjoy and let regular users who cannot do that avoid permission extortion. The world has needs and issues, it is not spinning around your skillset.
At least the parts it can access, anyway: /storage/emulated/0