Apple added this feature after the previous privacy gaffe from Path. Still though, there's a legitimate use case for asking for your contacts, and it is to help connect you with people you may know who are also on path. You also give them access to your photos to share things on Path, but there would be an uproar if they started uploading all of your photos to their servers. I'm not really seeing any good way to solve this at the OS level, it seems the only solution is for apps to be less shady.
However, according to Apple, even before iOS6 came along (which asks permission whenever an app requests access to Contacts) it had already been against Apple’s dev guidelines to use Contacts info without users’ permission:
“You and Your Applications may not collect user or device data without prior user consent, and then only to provide a service or function that is directly relevant to the use of the Application, or to serve advertising. You may not use analytics software in Your Application to collect and send device data to a third party.”
