@NatureMC You are absolutely correct to be concerned. I can confirm that this behavior is replicated on my instance. As you discovered, this is not a bug but a feature of Mastodon. Even if you reported it on GitHub, it would likely go unanswered like most requests over the years. Eugen does not share the same philosophy as most of the developers in the Fediverse. He has a growth mindset rather than a privacy one. This is his right and I support your decision to leave the large unsafe instances!
RyunoKi