Social engineering, name, address and email is enough to own anyone. For most things, maybe not on their own, but having these three keys its pretty easy to track down ph number, dob, and a number of other details.
The only reason this poses a security "threat" is because utility companies, banks, and other institutions use these "personal" bits of information like a password. And from what I hear, in the US your SSN's are used like this rather often as well.
I once had a long discussion with some call center manager about how using my DOB as a password to being able to cancel my account was hideously crappy and insecure, needless to say "its company policy" and there wasn't anything I could do to avoid it. (Yes I'm one of those people, but I really had nothing better to do and trolling some random call center staff is one of my favorite pastimes)
I probably should have put this nearer the top but oh well, to conclude, its not really a big deal, and hardly any different to any other commerce where you hand over this information along with your credit card. The only reason people are up and arms about it is because its too easy to get snagged by some identity thief uploading an seemingly legit application. In reality, there is easier ways to own someone in a targeted attack.
Simple solution: don't use your main google account for the play store, you can have multiple google accounts applied to android and pick and choose which to use for play store and which to use for gmail etc.