Not sure if serious, we are talking about data collection with zero chance of any practical targeted use.

The discussion would be a wholly different one if the data could be used for anything to e.g. sell, target ads or even deduce how/whether an individual has even used the application.

The data can obviously be used for things or google wouldn't pay for servers to collect it?

You sounded like you meant it could be used to target individuals, and not just draw statistical conclusions about the software. Those are quite different things. Every company that does "anonymous usage statistics" (which is basically the norm these days at least for larger apps) obviously have some use for the data or as you say they wouldn't be paying for the functionality.

I am serious that this will start as anonymous and sampled as stated but I am too cynical to think it will stay that way.