One common reason an app needs permissions is because of 3rd party metric libraries and 3rd party ad libraries. At least for games that's the #1 reason they ask for permissions the game itself doesn't need.

While I hate it my game dev friends retort that they see no negative repercussions... as in their install rates don't change perceptibly based on permissions requested. A few geeks like me might refuse to install but we're such a tiny percent of their customer base that it's not worth it for them to find alternative libraries or write their own.