You are generalizing. Perhaps some users do care about what a popup says?
The current paternalistic trend of removing agency from the user and making choices for them is lazy and perpetuates ignorance. Write better popups that do a better job explaining the problem, educating the user, and expressing the necessary information so the user can make an informed choice.
The point is that if the browser asks for permissions and the majority (or even just a significant minority really) say no because they don't understand the question then it has a tremendously negative impact on every application that could be built using that browser feature. It's better for progress if browser vendors make an intelligent call when and where browser's let applications access things.
Personally I'd rather browsers did ask permission, but in a way that affords application developers a way to explain why they need access. The difficulty would be how to stop rogue apps trying to scare users in to accepting things.
I think this just won't work. Most developers will end up with "need this to work correctly" excuse and proceed in all-or-nothing manner. Maybe with a small room for compromise, but not much. Heck, we already have this quite common with OAuth, when many sites ask you for your name, your contact/friends list, permission to post on your behalf and your first newborn's soul - in "grant all of this or go away" manner.
This will only continue the unnerving trend to train common users to mindlessly agree to whatever they're asked (already happened to license agreements, didn't it?) for because they'll be continuously told that it's "necessary".
Let the app think it gets access to all it wants. E.g. fake battery stats, never ringing buzzer, empty or fake contact list, throwaway email address, geolocation in random place (around the world or city of user's choice), random per-installation device IDs, etc.
If you're writing an application where your users care about what a popup says, then you should use them.