I think youre missing the point. Even if you-deny- Niantic and pokemon go the ability to read the microsd card, they still read it anyways. Thats the entire point being made. It doesnt matter if nintendo or anyone else asks or not. The point is companies are already reading your storage even if you explicitly deny them the right to do so. I personally have pokemon go denied every single access permission except gps, which it needs to operate. And i can confirm as soon as i put even an empty magisk folder with nothing in it on my microsd, pokemon go blocks my access. Its literally that simple. I dont understand why this is so hard to grasp for some.
1) No permission given.
2) in fact, permission explicitly denied.
3) card is still read and analyzed.
4) negative actions rendered.
If you honestly dont think nintendo cant do this, with their own hardware and software -they- built, then bless your soul.
Right now they dont seem to be doing it, and again, ill reiterate, i hope they maintain that policy. But you arent going to win an argument that they dont have the ability to do so, its flat out being done already in even less conducive situations without the end user's permission. End of story.