I'd like to start off with a couple of things.
First, the discussion about Pixel 9's rumored satellite connectivity is drowning out other discussions in this thread. I'd appreciate that any further discussion on the topic be in its own thread.
Second, what I say here is my own take on the subject. GrapheneOS developers or others who make decisions may have a different take, so please don't consider what I post here the project's stance on the matter. I'm not sure if the functionality will even work on AOSP, so we should wait and see what happens after the Pixel 9 is released.
Anyway, I'm more inclined to agree that satellite connectivity isn't as big of a privacy threat as it's being made out to be. We already know that carriers have the ability to triangulate a subscriber's position using cell towers. It's not clear how satellites can make their tracking capability more privacy-invasive. In areas with decent coverage, land-based towers can already triangulate the phone's position without satellites. So, for most people who live in or are in areas with coverage, adding satellites to the mix changes nothing.
When it comes to a phone connecting to a satellite, I've read the owner will have to hold the phone at a certain angle, maybe even moving around to get a better connection or clear view of the sky. So, clearly satellite connectivity might not be stable or even guaranteed, even when the owner is trying to connect.
Arguably, new or more cell towers in a given location would be "worse" (in terms of tracking) than satellites. Considering the fact that a satellite connection wouldn't be stable, I think it's unlikely the newer phones will start attempting to regularly communicate with satellites just because they can, but they definitely already do that with regular land-based towers.
When using GPS to get my own location on Earth, my phone has to "connect" to multiple satellites to even get a decent fix on my location. It only makes sense that a phone would have to connect to multiple satellites and/or towers for a carrier to figure out a device's location.
Last thought: considering costs, bandwidth, battery expenditure, etc. I don't think it's likely phones will connect to satellites just to spy on people in remote areas. (Is that data even useful or desired?) It's more likely that the user would have to intentionally use an app to use this functionality. I think this feature really is intended for use in emergencies only.
Overall, I don't see how this new rumored functionality really changes anything in a way that matters all that much.