What do you gain by not running FF first and letting it create a proper full profile? This is a rhetorical question

Just install/unpack FF & run it then close it to create a profile. Now add the user.js, run FF, work out what shit you don't like/need from the wiki (see common overrides), create a user-overrides.js. run updater (so it appends your overrides to the user.js). restart FF.

AF doesn't give a flying donkey about profiles in so much as you can put it into ANY profile to take effect. Adding it before everything else is set up by the app sounds like a recipe for nonsense

What do you gain by not running FF first and letting it create a proper full profile?

While not fatally important to me, it just occurred to me that in the first scenario I would prevent telemetry from calling home (before it gets blocked via AF). Perhaps also creating some files related to telemetry, normandy, etc

Adding it before everything else is set up by the app sounds like a recipe for nonsense

It was just an academic consideration, but I already have the answer ;)

There's nothing wrong with mozilla's telemetry - it uses PRIO, and it uses GLEAN, and it doesn't collect any PII, and it helps decisions upstream (and I'm not talking pedantic UI changes) that benefit everyone. Opt-in doesn't work. I'm sure you can google why. There is no reason to distrust Mozilla here - you're using their product

Anyway, what on earth is opening FF then closing it going to record that is of any importance? You can always check about:telemetry and see exactly what is collected, and you can delete the contents of the profile\datareporting dir, and you can always set it up with the internet disconnected. But this whole discussion is based on nonsense. There's no issue here

There's nothing wrong with mozilla's telemetry

then why do we disable it in AF?
Hmm, I'm confused...Until now, I thought that the purpose of AF is to improve the privacy of FF (and security by the way)

Perhaps you misunderstood my intentions.
Never mind

then why do we disable it in AF

this is something I have mulled over for years - i.e it is somewhat at odds with trying to keep the mission on statement - e.g see removal of most personal section items. Also see how we still enable Safe Browsing except the real-time binary checks. The "problem" is the user base: they just want a "quiet" fox and if I excluded them or made them inactive, then it would just bloat most user's overrides.

That said - I should get around to adding some context, maybe in a new section. A bit like the intro to SB