what's your point? if flatpak makes it easier for developers to package their software and easier for users to install it, there's nothing wrong with it being famous
the package is maintained (will continue to install on modern ubuntu versions), but the software is unmaintained (no bug fixes, no new features, will stagnate and eventually become obselete as incompatible with future desktop standard modifications)
and when they're caught, they'll dispute the claims with regulators, like every company does all the time.
i remember digging a bit into the french data protection office v. discord a while back, when they got hit with sanctions for not respecting gdpr, and they disputed every single claim, sometimes arguing in real bad faith, like them claiming they handle very little private user data, so they don't need to do data protection analysies like the law says.
considering google's sheer empire on data, i imagine they play the same tricks, but like 1000× worse
you could, but they definitely pushed you to use a single account everywhere, even logging you in automatically to your google account in chrome if you use it on google search or vice-versa
you can definitely back up apps and most files using adb and a computer, and probably even your phone itself by doing adb over the network back to your phone
also, i think there's a way of setting up a different location provider in the developper setings on android!
it's that wayland wasn't ready, and now is ready. it took a long time, because building a new protocol like that takes a while if you want to do it well, and lots of coordination between many people. it still has issues, but they're being adressed. slowly, because x11 was full of half-assed solutions done quickly, and they don't want that to happen again
X11 being reliable because Xorg devs aren't stupid
xorg devs are wayland devs. nowadays, most of the people that used to work on xorg now work on wayland. they're not stupid, they realised that x11 is too dated for modern systems (see asahi linux) and now are working on a replacement
what's your point? if flatpak makes it easier for developers to package their software and easier for users to install it, there's nothing wrong with it being famous