So somebody on Telegram said that.
(Not taking away from Omni Technovič giving a good summary of the matter and giving a sound suggestion depending on individual use cases.)
microG developers made the choice to overhaul the location stack. Their hand was forced by Android 13 it seems.
/e/OS developers made the choice to include a current microG version in /e/OS 1.12.3, as I think they might usually do when updating. And usually if they wouldn’t, this or that Google-dependent App might be more likely to run into compatibility issues, if not a more broad compatibility feature overall.
Both choices are ok in itself.
Of course the location handling changes need a closer look …
The release notes mention the microG update with the “a new location & maps stack” and link to the corresponding changelog with notes on the matter by the microG developer.
A good reminder to read the release notes.
(Hopefully, since I forget this sometimes, too, although I should know better, but I’m the one to blame then.)
Calls broke for emerald users for the time being, there’s no hint towards that in the release notes.
The choice for the developers was which microG version to put into the update, and your choice in this case was to update or not with available info on the location matter.
Please don’t take what I wrote the wrong way. I know this feeling well and can sympathise, and you’re within your right to be fed up with something breaking, just keep the argument sound …
So, what happened is clear, and /e/OS developers were aware of the changes as per the release notes.
@Manoj: Were the team aware the changes in microG would break location for the use cases of a number of users? Is there an ETA for the suggested further changes in microG supposedly solving the problem?