Maybe I should take the time. But I guarantee I'm not the only person feeling this way, and most people will simply avoid Signal if they're doing suspicious stuff that they don't understand.
Also when it lands on stable, it will be opt-in. So one need to deliberately switch it on to enable their cryptocurrency.
Their history tells us they go to great lengths to eliminate metadata. Court requests for signal data only get the account creation time and last access time. Please read about how they implemented their gif functionality in such a way as to preserve privacy. Also read about how they preserve your privacy in group chats. I think they are available in their blog. My understanding is that these things are unique to signal and apps like Element Matrix, WhatsApp, wire, telegram, threema, Conversations XMPP etc don't have it.
IMO it's a good idea to read Signal's blog. It can also be subscribed through RSS so you'll get notified about new articles.
Yes, Telegram chats aren't E2E encrypted, but they Just Work. You can have the same chat history on your phone, tablet, laptop and desktop without any issues. With beautiful native clients too.
Also the bot feature is killer in my book.