Can't you just deny the permissions?

Right from the get go, if you deny it access to SMS it forces you to wait 2 minutes (no way to skip), then only gives you the option to receive a phone call with a code to enter.

Why not work like every other app and allow me to just enter the code from the SMS I received?

As someone whose primary motivation had little to do with "hiding my conversations" and much more to do with "not having my entire address book, unrelated SMS history, and identity sucked up and sent to some company I don't trust", Signal just wasn't a great onboarding process at all. In the time I spent waiting to see what happened when the SMS timed out, I'd already installed Telegram and gotten setup. And if I remember correctly, even once I went through the phonecall process Signal was basically non-functional without access to my contacts.

So Telegram it's been - shitty crypto and all. Though I'm open to other recommendations.

Exactly. Signal is #privacyfail because is requires access to contacts. Wire is better.

Thank you for that addition. I do not use Signal myself so I was talking from an observer perspective.