I'm much less interested in gating audio recording (which I have reasonable confidence in the device itself doing) and much more interested in being able to use a device like this without turning on all of the various histories. Google Assistant refuses to do most of its interesting functions (other than trivial things like setting an alarm) without turning on search history, location history, voice history, and various device information.
There's no good reason for it to require that information for a request like like "play XYZ on YouTube".
> which I have reasonable confidence in the device itself doing
A few horror stories related to Alex hint that it might not be doing a very good job. The grammar/syntax it uses to wake is much more complex than what Alias is proposing as a safe alternative. The most blatant example would be the Portland, OR couple that found the Alexa device making phone calls to people as they had a discussion near it.
I don't know about Alexa but Google Home always repeats back to me in a loud and clear (and slow :( ) voice what it's about to do when I issue a command. I have a hard time believing you wouldn't notice the device making a call. Even if you failed to notice what the device was doing, the likelihood of this type of mistake vs. the likelihood of a pocket dial seems relatively slim.
There's no good reason for it to require that information for a request like like "play XYZ on YouTube".