I disagree with your attempt to frame this like it is an issue that needs to be resolved at all costs. Yes, I don't give developers access to my data which would be useful for them. No, I won't explain why I'm refusing this. Yes, it might result in some lower quality software. I am completely fine with that situation and wish it will stay that way.
That's totally fine and they have an opt-out mechanism for people who feel like that. I don't think anyone is behaving badly here. They want to collect data to make their software better; opt-in has significant downsides; and you have an option to turn off the data collection. What are we complaining about?
The problem is that right now I only know about this in the first place because I just happened to open hacker news at this hour of the day. You seem to agree that it is totally fine if I don't want my data collected, but how could I even prevent it if I don't know about it (since it is opt-out only)?
This is a fair point! I think for people who feel so strongly about this, it's perhaps the best compromise that you have to go digging into the settings for it, since opt-in is basically the same as not having it at all. It seems unlikely to me that a project like Manjaro would go out of their way (as Google etc do) to use dark patterns and disrespect your wishes here.
"Opt-Out" is a dark pattern per definition. If everyone does it (and on some platforms many people do), it leads to an impossible eternal whack-a-mole situation where the user is constantly monitoring their system while still being unable to ever be 100% certain that every leak is closed.
This is why some users opt for a system that enforce Opt-In or even Opt-Never by default. The sheer peace of mind is worth a lot.
And it's not even such a strange stance. Consider eg Enterprise or National security. Why shouldn't a regular user have such security by default?
