Chiming in to note that GNSS communications are actually receive only. A typical phone can't physically broadcast a strong enough signal into mid-earth orbit (where most of those satellites typically are) to achieve the "pinging GPS satellites" issue.

Note this only refers to how that signal physically hits your phone. Once your position is deduced and digitized there's an entirely different attack surface.

The other concerns (especially cell tower data tracking) are valid though.

or even pinging GPS satellites (because that leaves a log)

What logs does it leave and where? Satellite is a one way communication system, the devices just receive the satellites signal and calculate the position by themselves.

Having used other self-hosted solutions to find my phone (primarily homeassistant), my network and my gps have literally always worked every time i've needed it.

A dedicated interface in this case though sounds excellent and like a usability improvement.