There is no technical reason the OS couldn't stop this by stripping exif/location data from photos if the requesting application doesn't have location permissions.
There is: every app that does stuff with photos (e.g. filter software or other processors) will strip the exif data now in the process.
Being able to search my images by location means I can easily find all images from my trip to X, or grab all the pictures I took while at my old house. It's hugely useful and I would be livid if an is update or app update started striping that info.