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Stock Android has nothing to do with it, the same Play Services exist on every Android phone on the (western) market.

Ah good point. I didn't realise that. I need to look into MicroG again. Any Android running Play Services basically has a massive backdoor.

Google controls the entire operating system, and in some cases the hardware, so it's a backdoor into the house they already own

Stock android has everything to do with it. Non-stock options allow you to remove Google Apps which include Play services.