This part about the zoom acquisition is true, but to date no sketchy things have been committed to the client repos, they’re open source
Personally I think the acquisition was to disrupt development, not to hijack it. You’re right that dev work essentially stopped at that time, outside of security fixes.
Also, it doesn’t track you, it allows you to post public proofs so you can choose to let the people you connect with verify your identify. It’s not mandatory.