Which the software that I used to be employed maintaining has actually broken homebrew compiles when they've been installed at the same time (which I think I made better but I never got the PM who actually owned the product to spend the resources to properly fix).

A good example of how the configuration in the end user environment can affect package installation.

If so, that's... not ideal for sure.

However, we can't catch everything: Homebrew has millions of users, and those users have all kinds of different setups. We can't predict every possible host and software interaction; basic failure analytics help bridge the gap there.

Where can I learn more? Can you point me at the right place in the source?

I'll not be banning Homebrew telemetry.

I've linked Homebrew's analytics data and the source code that collects it elsewhere in this thread.

And, to be absolutely clear: it is perfectly fine for you to disable Homebrew's analytics. There are an infinite number of legitimate reasons for doing so, including the most basic one of "I just don't want to." My sole goal is to dispel the small number of inaccurate beliefs about what Homebrew collects, why we collect it, etc.