(Feddit just started working again)
CalyxOS implements many random 3rd party stuff as if that was their own.
Apart from 2 (QKSMS and Bromite) being unmaintained, installing random apps as system apps (if this is what they do) means a system update may cause data loss for users, when removing those apps. And it has the problem of a way too high goal that can not be reached. They simply dont maintain those apps, so dont ship them.
How much maintenance does a simple SMS app need? What random apps are system apps? Beomite is not installed, not even sure qksms is, but I always use it. Never had a single issue removing any apps. Seems like you’re just very uninformed
They had this on their homepage, advertizing QKSMS and Bromite as if they were project apps. Which they are not.
So either A: they preinstall apps as system apps or B: they have some form of installer that installs them as normal user apps.
You should have as many apps as user apps as possible.
Maybe they changes this idk. But QKSMS is not a simple SMS app like the one that GrapheneOS implements (the old and hardly maintained AOSP one) and Bromite is an unmaintained Browser which is a huge problem. Cromite and Quik are maintained forks.
Some Archive when they still had Bromite on their page
Could not find QKSMS but that was somewhere
Chromium BASED on chromite, which appears to be actively developed. I use mull which works well. Default SMS is “messaging” app.