"Any user can simply opt out by unchecking the box"

They should at least do it the other way round and have people opt in instead of opt out. Still I would prefer a distro that does not have such functionality in the first place.

Since Ubuntu did their first "phone home" experiments in 2015, I stayed away from it. And I will keep it that way. It was just too much of a user hostile action. Shuttleworth even defended it. Showed me that his values are not compatible with mine.

Linux Mint has been a very user friendly replacement so far.