That's not the behaviour of what happened here, where an app was downloaded without user initiation or intervention. There was no authorization from the user of the actions that were taken by Google or the app's vendor.
Yes, of course, but this isn't a technical issue. Look at the webpage that this hn page references. When people say, "an app was installed on my device without my consent or knowledge," the exact method the device used to listen isn't important.
The first issue is that Google software allows non-authorized software installations. The second issue is that a government forced the installation of the app. The technical specifics are just implementation details.