Yes, but if we are giving recommendations to users, and are explicitly wanting to take into account mass surveillance like this entire thread of conversation is about, e2e is pretty much a requirement nowadays, and we should be suspicious of any service that doesn't implement it.
Agreed. I'm confused as to why Telegram doesn't implement e2e by default. It seems to be the number 1 criticism of people who would otherwise most likely sign up.
Post-Snowden, the question around encryption seems to have shifted from "why are you doing it?" to "why aren't you doing it?".
It just seems like an odd feature not to have unless you have a strong reason for not wanting it.
Is it a technical hurdle?
taking your own argument into account, using "popular alternatives" is probably not the right criteria here.
Telegram is not E2E by default, so the name shouldn't even appear in any list of recommendations.