GrapheneOS Google has been increasingly silent in response to our communications since dropping Pixel support from AOSP with Android 16 in June 2025. They could have told us MTE performance was significantly reduced so they disabled it at launch but will add it back to firmware for QPR2. That's still unclear.
Behind any faceless corporation is real people and real engineers who are just dutifully following the guidance issued by management. Have some compassion and put yourself in these engineers shoes, who may: be happy that people are extending and improving the Android project or be (be)mused at all of the attention the Android community gives to their product decisions.
But given the all of the melodrama that both GrapheneOS communication and the community makes out of every damn thing that doesn't go their way, I'd imagine that it would really depress well-meaning engineers and certainly burn bridges at the management level as the project becomes more of a PR liability.
And don't get me wrong, I totally agree with mostly all of the positions that the community and the project take. It's just the drama (look at this thread!) and the lack of good faith and eagerness to shit on Big G (and specifically the engineers behind the G) that's just tragic to see, especially as a person with the tiniest ounce of social awareness.
Compassion, just a little compassion goes a long way in this world where it's so easy to post negative things online!