Hard to find a mobile app these days that doesn't demand contact access, try using WhatsApp without providing it and it's a rough ride, I'm super reluctant to upload mine but that one was basically unusable without doing so.
That’s very true. Though it wasn’t the contacts upload on its own so much. It was that they were uploaded in the background without permission or notification and your contacts were spammed without your permission.
I don't think they ever recovered from that incident. https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782947/path-ios-app-user-...
I can't believe they somehow trotted along for another six years. Never seen anybody use it since.