(I help work on the Android client)

The OSS build of the Android app doesn't depend on Google Play Services, and is currently available from the github release page: https://github.com/owntracks/android/releases (and has been since v2.4.0 released last year).

> Whats the point of half measures like this

Personally, I don't care about Google knowing my location. I care about having my location data on a system I control so I can do useful things with it.