Maybe this (noise added to data going to advertisers) should be required on phones, it's basically an enforced form of data privacy.

iOS has always had this and android has had it since marshmallow.

I'm not sure where you are, but the Dark Sky Weather app is available in the UK. I believe many other app use the Dark Sky api too, like Carrot Weather, which is quirky but quite good.

The problem was actually wifi information (which can be used to infer location) not location. What OS are you using that you can't choose permissions individually for an app? I forget which version of Android got that but it's at least a couple years old at this point. The other benefit being that it installs updates without having to ask for you permission, then when the app needs a permission, it asks you if you want to grant that permission. And you can go to Settings->Apps->[The App]->Permissions to enable/disable them individually later.