And the absence of telemetry data, he contends, makes it more difficult for project maintainers to understand what's important, what's working, and to prioritize changes, thereby making maintainer burnout more likely.

Very funny argument that is often used to attempt to justify telemetry; like if you couldn't just ask and listen to your users to get their feedback instead of spying them. In addition, for that kind of thing, telemetry will not tell you why you see some phenomenon and could lead to negative reinforcement.