What actually matters is that the plugin developer is pro-social, discloses the behavior, the user accepts that disclosure, and that the user isn't duped by their inability to review all of the code for every update.
I do think that self-reports on permission usage are a step in the right direction, and can also help in decentralized uncovering of unintended API access.
However I think with the recent pace of supply chain attacks, I think we'll be in for a rough couple months until a sandboxing system is added.