Almost a decade ago, I wrote and published a small companion app for a game and set a hard rule for myself that it didn't need the internet permission (and thus stuff like a privacy policy). It still managed to be useful despite that, which made me pretty proud at the time.

Stock Android has always classified internet as a "normal" permission that can't be toggled by the user. I think it still might have to be requested by the app, and you could see it in the app details, but it has always been auto-granted with no way to turn off.