signal requires a phone number to sign up. a phone number could be used to trace your signal account back to you. so why do people, especially privacy enthusiasts and experts (like edward snowden), still use it and endorse it when it lacks anonymity in that sense? i get that people could use a voip number or something to sign up, but still.
As far as messangers go, there are plenty which don’t require a phone numer, like Threema.
So for this instance, it is pretty easy to have both