iChat and signal had parity at that intersection. The color of the bubbles means something in ichat, there was a known ui component to convey that message...
Signal went from being mms + encrypted side channel to ... another messaging app adding social media features.
It is and always wanted to be a secure messenger which does not share your data with some big company.
Providing an insecure feature within the app was stupid. People didn't even realize that this was an issue, and those who ran away now never even cared about the core features of Signal. They just wanted to have another SMS client.
