It was never particularly safe to root the phone - both because it drills a hole into the security model and because you don't have any good ways of verifying what apps asking for root actually do.

Moreover, most of root tools and ROMs are rather poorly written and glued together with other forum scripts which you have no way of checking if they're not malware. (There are exceptions.)

So no, "safe" it's not and never has been. The tradeoff might be worth it for you as a user though.

> The reason I'm asking is that I'm stuck with authy as a MFA code app, and would like to move to something that has both desktop and phone support, and my conclusion is I'd need to root my phone to get access to the actual MFA seeds (they don't allow exports to keep you stuck in their app).

The way to do that is to take the hit and recreate your 2FA codes in an opensource app like Aegis or Stratum.

Thanks for the summary. I agree with you about 2FA, but it's still annoying, I was hoping I would find a lazier solution.