It's 2022 and why is mobile access control in Android still like this? Granularity guys
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The normal approach is for apps to open the system file manager and have the user choose files/directories.
The interface you're showing is for authorizing an app to be a full file manager. Apps can't directly request it through a dialog, but users still want that capability.
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By all files it means all the files within that profile's home directory. Apps can never access the files of other apps. Ideally they would give up on supporting alternate file managers and drop support for requesting bulk access to indexed media. There would be immense pushback.
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Requesting bulk generic file access to the profile's home directory has been removed. Apps have to use the system that has existed since Android 4.4 for case-by-case opening/storing files with user control via the system file manager UI, which was extended to directories in 5.0.
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Is the message in the screenshot just misleading then? It states that all files on the device and attached storage would be accessible.
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It means all files in the current profile's home directory and external drives that are attached while using the profile. There is no system to grant apps access to system data or the files of other apps. It's not supported, and never has been.
This is a menu in the Settings app for authorizing an app to be a file manager. It's not a normal permission that an app can request with a dialog. It works in a similar way as enabling an accessibility service or granting an app access to app usage statistics via Settings app.
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This isn't how apps request access to files/directories but unfortunately having support for alternate file managers means that apps can abuse it for other purposes. It should likely be removed, but there would genuinely be extreme pushback as there has been for doing far less.
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