Well, the credit card example you give is a good one- you can go through life without paying for anything by credit card, and your credit card will never be stolen. If you do pay for things by credit card, there is a chance that it will be stolen. If you post your credit card details publicly there is a 100% guarantee it will be stolen.

I think the same applies to apps. There is a sensible middle ground in there somewhere, and the new permission request alerts from Apple will go a long way to helping with that. But no, never any guarantees about anything.