Doesn't Apple do something similar however? When you turn WiFi off on your iPhone a prompt appears saying that it's better to turn it on for "better location tracking" or something like that.
Keeping Wifi on allows “find my” to work more accurately, which many people value. Third party apps such as YouTube have an additional permission to be able to look at the local network.
Newer wifi chips allow passive scanning while the bulk of the silicon is powered down. I.e. it could/should also work in flight mode