What if it got a list of every link on a page and sent that and then claimed it did that to better improve the extension by figuring out which query params aren't necessary and claimed that these links help train their app / extension.

That seems reasonable on paper, but it's a wildly over the top violation of your privacy and is only slightly less invasive than an entire page response.

I don't think the above example would get denied by a reviewer and it still uses the same "can read and modify" permissions as the current extension in its current form.