Another factor; so many programs today either require or… at least try a network connection before they actually DO anything.
Then layer on all ill thought through corporate stuff and it's not surprising work computers grind to a halt at the drop of a hat.
The awfulness might be mitigated slightly if it were opt-in and disabled by default, but of course it never is. It is tightly bound to dark patterns.
It's discouraging when open source software becomes infected with telemetry and dark patterns, but at least then there's a chance of forking the project and removing it.