Market theory says people will vote with their wallet, which is why I boycott all of them. But I'm under no delusion that my behavior will change anything. Voting with your wallet only works if someone is willing to offer what you want.
You are implying that all alternatives have to be "buying a smart home assistant". There is another alternative: Don't buy one. If all existing alternatives are bad, then not buying any is also a way to "vote by wallet". Then there will be a big market segment of not-having-bought-yets that can get tapped into by just coming with a privacy-preserving offering.
But I share your sentiment nonetheless, I have zero desire to become part of the group of persons that got used to voice control and would therefore miss it if it wasn't available (as long as I don't turn blind I guess)
For the blind however, I guess it's a huge win that ad-driven voice control gadgets exist and are available to them. I'm sure their options would be basically nonexistent if they were the entire market.
Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone."
https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictati...