I bought the small foldable dji mavic when it first came out. I could not fly it with the provided controller without installing an app, creating a login, and activating the drone. I sent it back immediately.

Later I found out HOW MANY different sites the app would have connected to when I installed it. This kind of thing is horrendous, but businesses have normalized the practice.

The API is out now so you can use it with third-party apps, just FYI.

so you can use a dji mavic out-of-the-box without asking permission from DJI or someone else?