Google is not "respectful of privacy" per se, they will always try to get as much data as possible of you and monetize it (nothing wrong with this, they are at least transparent about their intentions and their apps are usually good, zero-priced and secure).
It's now on the user to keep Google from invading privacy if they choose to do so. Sandboxed Play Services, Storage and Contact Scopes and extended Permission Control can mitigate a lot (thank you GOS!!!) but there are things you can not avoid using Google's Apps (like keep Google from reading your mails in Gmail or the notification content from apps using GSF). You not having "any privacy problems" means that you are okay with what you send to Google (also nothing wrong about that), but others might not be okay and for them Google is accessing too much, even on GOS.