Except that they are too cool to use peer-reviewed reasonable encryption protocols.

By switching their optional E2E encryption from their weird proprietary thing to the Signal protocol, Telegram could at least display some goodwill – but only making that the default would show that they actually care about their users privacy.

e2ee comes with severe usability limitations.

I'd be happy if it was available on desktop clients as well :D

It's very usable on WhatsApp and Signal – even on the desktop clients.

Last time I used whatsapp on desktop (admittedly a few years ago), the user experience was that I needed my phone around to unlock it every once in a while, because the desktop client was disconnecting every time the phone went into a deeper power save mode.

The desktop client requiring me to constantly have the mobile with me defeats the purpose.

It doesn't do that anymore, but I'm guessing that the way it's done now comes with a privacy cost.

Still... It's an excellent product. Default e2ee, notifications on partner key changes. The main thing I'd like from it would be an option to block me from sending messages until I reauthenticate the partner, or a colour coded system like threema that serves as a reminder that without authc you really don't know who you're chatting with.