> I use it. I use it because people I need to talk to are there
This is exactly what makes it "your problem".
Signal worked out a way to provide E2E messaging that practically everybody who cares and all their friends use. You can choose to accept their phone number requirement compromise and take advantage of that huge and growing network of users, or you can go your own way and somehow convince "the people you need to talk to" to also use some alternative that more closely meets your specific needs.
> I remain unconvinced.
I get that. I understand and even partly agree with your stance. But the pragmatist in me is way happier with having a significant portion of the people in my contact list also on Signal and having a zero effort was to have an E2E encrypted chat with them. I am old enough to have gone to PGP keyparties in the late 90s. I have verified private keys for a handful of friends with some combination of privacy/security/paranoia outlooks. I can't remember the last time I sent or decrypted a PGP message (that wasn't a computer generated alert). Person to person encryption key exchange has been tried and has never gained anything like a ubiquitous network. Signal isn't perfect, but it's got very close to that, which makes it day to day usable and extremely useful. At least for me and all my friends and most of my business contacts. YMMV.
This is exactly what makes it "your problem".
Signal worked out a way to provide E2E messaging that practically everybody who cares and all their friends use. You can choose to accept their phone number requirement compromise and take advantage of that huge and growing network of users, or you can go your own way and somehow convince "the people you need to talk to" to also use some alternative that more closely meets your specific needs.
> I remain unconvinced.
I get that. I understand and even partly agree with your stance. But the pragmatist in me is way happier with having a significant portion of the people in my contact list also on Signal and having a zero effort was to have an E2E encrypted chat with them. I am old enough to have gone to PGP keyparties in the late 90s. I have verified private keys for a handful of friends with some combination of privacy/security/paranoia outlooks. I can't remember the last time I sent or decrypted a PGP message (that wasn't a computer generated alert). Person to person encryption key exchange has been tried and has never gained anything like a ubiquitous network. Signal isn't perfect, but it's got very close to that, which makes it day to day usable and extremely useful. At least for me and all my friends and most of my business contacts. YMMV.