The internet has been around for quite a while now, and is absolutely critical for a lot of applications. Most people would never give up the internet.

Yet there are still many applications without explicit mandatory internet tie-ins like cloud sync. In fact, "stores data locally" and "won't disappear with zero notice" are valuable features to many people!

Just because AI is a no-brainer must-have for some apps doesn't mean it is a required feature for all apps - let alone one shoved in your face every few minutes.

I feel like the equivalent for the rise of the internet would be an explicitly anti-internet stance -- no website, no downloads, no online customer support, everything routed through snail mail, fax, and telephone (but no VoIP!) as an intentional ideological point.

> valuable features to many people!

Which products that sell this are broadly popular? I can see some people on HN wanting it, but people I know who are outside that bubble don't even think of it as an issue.