I'm OOP, I bought this phone outright. Google seems to be installing this on phones by default (the actual pattern based on people's comments seems to be more recent phones, but not all have it).

It's even shipping within de-googled phones, at some base ASOP level (or the hardware, I dunno, not that knowledgeable), as some GrapheneOS use reported having it on their phones too.

I'm pissed because: 1. It's installed when it shouldn't be, 2. Gives inappropriate power to creditors, which hurts the most vulnerable.

This has nothing to do with Google.

Google welded anti-consumer logic into the kernel. Of course that’s on Google. Just like Intel started making CPUs with a management engine that can only work against non-corporate consumers, basically saying fuck the individuals’ needs.. putting individuals at unconscionable risk without their knowledge or consent.

Consumers have decisions to make. Is a consumer happy to feed a supplier who sells them something that works against them? Some are. I’m not. Going forward they fail to earn my business because they have too many masters.

You going to ditch Linux because they support remote management too?

Linux is not locked down. Users can remove anything they want from it.