Fay_Wilmont When you tap one, it shows a list of operations that the app will be allowed to perform when set as a device admin app.
I'm not sure the app is limited to the listed capabilities, and cannot gain new ones without the user's permission. It might be true or not, I can't confirm that. I've also never tried to check the device admin activation screen on my device with any app, as I have no intention of accidentally granting an app this permission. I do tend to think you're right about this, it's not the first time I hear about this, but I wouldn't rely on it.
Fay_Wilmont Makes no sense to simply wipe the device when it could be the legitimate user of the phone revoking the device admin permission.
There's some apps that do that. Including some theft deterrence apps, and even malware. (Malware might not need to wait for the user to try to revoke their device admin permission, however.)
Fay_Wilmont Also, revoking the device admin permission in Safe Mode—if possible—should work the same way or have the same repercussions as in normal mode, otherwise it would be Unsafe Mode.
Some permissions cannot be revoked in Safe Mode, including some incredibly dangerous special permissions. This is because these permissions aren't listed in Safe Mode; presumably, listing them requires enumerating something in apps which is impossible to do when apps are disabled, which is what Safe Mode does. Since the device admin permission is an incredibly dangerous special permission, and I don't quite remember which of the dangerous permissions are unavailable in Safe Mode, I started having doubts that it can be revoked in Safe Mode.
An example of an incredibly dangerous permission that I do remember cannot be revoked in Safe Mode is the accessibility permission. It is possible, however, to disable the app that has this permission, then reboot normally, then revoke this permission. This way the app never runs despite exiting Safe Mode.