@sneak, Element is bloated but (a) and (b) are only true if it’s configured to do so (wouldn’t surprise me if that’s default though). For example the instance at halogen.chat does not do that.
@cnx the client does it before you even configure a homeserver. this is a client issue, not a homeserver issue. it's broken by design. i filed the bug years ago.
@cnx yes it's possible to configure servers that way and if indeed you have succeeded in this you will be the first (out of a half dozen) privacy-focused server admins who have set up a matrix instance who have succeeded in not having it phone home to vector.im. that's a problem with the software. all software can be modified to not do what you don't want it to do, that's not the point. all of the instances in the wild do this. also, my thread is about element the client, not your website.