Mozilla has also made an official statement saying that no user data will be stored, so break that promise would be misleading of customers, and their Privacy Statement does not constitute the storing of such data, so allowing it anyways would count as violation of contract.
Additionally, they're testing it in Germany, where this sort of hidden collection of data either has to be obvious (for example, if you order something online, it's clear that they have to process your address), which is clearly not the case with Cliqz, or the user has to be prompted for opt-in, not either the case with Cliqz, or it may not be personal data. So, if it were personal data, they'd be violating German law.
And the handful of shitstorms in tech-focused online communities are hardly the end of the world for Mozilla. Making the internet rely less on search engines, which is what they're ultimately trying to achieve with Cliqz, is more important than that.
And speaking of which, I made a post prior to FF57 asking where the Cliqz situation went and got no responses. Any idea as to what happened with it? I haven't seen any updates on the situation since and feel like it's just been swept under the rug.