I understand the sentiment, but if you can conceive of an app the user would want to have access to the contact or message data - say a contact management app or something to automatically insert lolcats in your message (I'm struggling, but you get the idea) - then the permission has to exist, and therefore an app has to be able to request it.
I agree that most people will just click the "whatever" button but, fond as I am of pointing the finger of blame at google, I'm not sure what more they could do other than a big red "really? Are you sure" button". Which 98% of people would click.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
