The idea that facial recognition was just to determine if someone is in front of the machine is a diversion. A simple occupancy sensor would do the same, cheaper and more simply. The company only invested in the facial recognition because they are getting some other gain from it (presumably, data harvesting).

I don’t really find the Android notification system useful, as there are always a few apps that permanently place an icon in the tray. But I’m not really a mobile “power user” so I’m not the target market for these features.

Exactly. Mastodon supports polls so what the heck?