You’re right, Matrix doesn’t ask for a phone number but it damn sure leaks metadata like a sieve. Unless things have significantly changed in the last year, here’s a list of things Matrix can see about you in an encrypted room, that an app like Signal cannot:

None of the thing you listed are personally identifying information. I have to ask at this point, do you even understand what personally identifiable information is?

I clearly understand the difference, what you fail to address is that at the end of the day you are placing your trust in a third party, whether its the code, the protocols or a back-end server.

If you can't understand the fundamental difference between trusting that an algorithm is provably safe mathematically vs putting trust into some random people then it's clear that a rational discussion is not possible with you.

I know what you’re talking about but you don’t want to bring it up because its all tinfoil hat wearing flat-earth conspiracy theory web of poorly connected dots.

Imagine saying that without a hint of irony after Snowden revelations. Either you're a troll or the most gullible person to have ever walked this planet.

I'm going to stop replying to you here because I've said all there is to say on the issue and we're just going in circles. I think that you understand the problems with Signal perfectly well, as will anybody reading this thread. It's pretty clear that you're intentionally trolling, and there's no point continuing to engage with you. People can make their own mind whether they want to put their trust into a CIA outfit or not.