We’re really not doing anything evil or underhanded here! This is my high-level summary:
GPL users
Set a flag to disable it, and carry on as before.
Paid-for license users
This is all off by default so won’t affect you. In future we hope to be able to offer a simple analytics dashboard, so this may become something you’ll want to opt-into if you decide you’d like some low-effort basic analytics.
Free license users:
There’s a saying about the internet: “When you get something for free it means you’re the product, not the customer”. The splash + analytics is how you’re paying for our service!
If it means you have to worry about how it affects app store or other 3rd-party EULAs then that’s just something you’ll have to figure out. But there are millions of apps out there which do all kinds of far more insidious call-homes, so it’s clearly not an unusual thing to do.