I used Avenza Maps in the past for offline navigation at various state parks. The park service provides maps and the app will let you navigate the trails. It's been a long time since I used it and I now have a new phone on which I never installed the Google Play services. The app is complaining that "check that Google play is enabled. .." and then quits.
All the sites I've searched show you how to install or enable Google play (which I don't want). I'm pretty sure that it's needed because the app allows for in app purchases, which i don't need. I don't think I rooted this phone. Are there any workarounds or shim/simulation apps that would allow the app to work without installing privacy violating Google services?
This is just an example. There are apps like dating apps, government apps, ticket apps etc that require Google Play services. In my country there were plans for train tickets to be issued exclusively per app, this is a whole other political problem, but the point stands that Google Play services become increasingly important for regular bureaucracy and societal/social participation. We should of course fight against that, but microG and others often cannot keep up.
I agree it's a huge issue when no other alternatives exist, such as ticketing or government applications.
It's not an issue when alternatives exist, though, and we should use and support these alternatives rather than finding hacky workarounds.
i love the iNaturalist app but it has the same problem: uses google maps for pinning locations :/
i don't have gms and i won't be installing it just for this one app