Years ago I used to use the MS Launcher, however I noticed strange behaviour when in low 2g signal areas...Apps would take longer starting up. I'd tap on an icon, nothing would happen and the launcher would appear frozen, few seconds later the app would open.

I noticed the launcher was sending traffic whenever I started an app and it was affecting app start times when in low and slow signal areas.

I didn't dig in to it, but I suspected it was sending app usage analytics and the launcher was blocking until its usage data was transferred.

Another MS app "Your phone companion" is also sus. Preinstalled on my S10, it uses 20mb of data a month and I don't use it at all. Receives very frequent updates, its changelog is "Not provided by developer", and it has many permissions.