I do not use iMessage. I mean I tried it and still do use it maybe couple of times a year. It didn’t fly with any of my contacts around here. Much worse results than my Signal and Matrix evangelism attempts.

It’s just that I’m in a geographical area where blue tick - green tick didn’t become a thing and people use other messaging apps which are better than iMessage by light years; and that’s good.

Anyway, is it possible that OP was pointing to iMessage simply being inferior? And it is inferior, just like pretty much any online service from Apple. And Apple’s recent convoluted u-turn on privacy.

But still, yeah, “dignity” is too strong a term to be used in this context maybe.

The “dignity” part applies less to Apple’s Messages, and more to using ad-funded software where you are the product being “monetized” and manipulated. I find that repulsive and degrading.

Messages and Tact come from the same place in that both aim to just enable people to communicate, without any further sinister or degrading motive.