Concept of a pipe dream: Per-app extended storage options on Android, rather than enforced scoped storage.

It appears that Google is waging a silent war against user freedom. It is sad to see Android slowly degenerate through blanket iOS-tier restrictions. Here is my prediction of what might happen to MTP access: https://i.reddit.com/r/MarkMyWords/comments/lkblds/mmw_google_is_going_to_deny_mtp_access_in_a/ This concept screenshot shows how storage access controls could have been implemented in Android OS, and would allow legacy file access to co-exist with Google's “Storage Access Framework” (SAF). Rather than imposing a blanket restriction and causing lots of colleteral damage and massive frustration among users, users should have been given per-app options for storage access, all the way since 2014 (Android 4.4 KitKat, which also removed 4.3 Jelly Bean's “app-ops”, only to bring such a feature back in version 6.0 Marshmallow). This would also prevent breaking compatibility with existing established apps. Problems with “Storage Access Framework” (SAF): High latency, poor documentation (possibly improved by now), and lack of backwards compatibility: https://www.xda-developers.com/android-q-storage-access-framework-scoped-storage/ At this moment, no good file manager has proper file access, and also I found no way to revoke access from a specific folder once granted via the system's own folder selector. Amaze File Manager is the best open-source file manager I am aware off, but it lacks range selection, and the pre-adware ES File Explorer versions such as 3.1.0.x were made before SAF was around. Amaze File Manager also lacks FTP client (while supporting FTP serving!), but SAF-enabled “File Manager HD” by RhythmSoft has that at least. But again, RhythmSoft's file manager sadly lacks range selection. No good text editor supports it yet. All these compatibility breaches are painful, and one has to wait until apps adapted to SAF are finally around. Or update apps and risk that the developer tried to "fix" something that was not broken in the first place, making things worse. SAF is slow (in my own experience, but also confirmed by XDA), the Terminal apps do not support it yet, and if I move files within the memory card using Amaze File Manager or RhythmSoft File Manager HD, the files are copied and then deleted from the source directory, instead of directly moved (how moving is supposed to work), which is a massive waste of resources. Sorry, but these are too many problems. All these chaos and frustration would have been spared if what is shown in this concept screenshot had been implemented. And I see no downsides to it. Now, some might say that with such freedom come risks. However, it is the user's obligation to grant file access responsibly. Imagine Microsoft blanket-revoking file access to USB flash media for all non-Microsoft programs “for security reasons”, or Internet access altogether! Except that Windows Explorer is a good file manager, while Google DocumentsUI is stinking feature-crippled garbage: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/jj4mwl/warning_possible_bug_in_builtin_file_manager/