Is android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE a must when using Unity?

I read somewhere it's needed so that the software can read the lens distortion data from the phone.

It is required by the Oculus Remote Monitor when debugging. It should be safe to remove if you don't use that.

Thanks.
So shouldn't it be added only if you are using the Remote Monitor?
I saw that other people also asked about this, and it took me time to find where the permission is.

The default AndroidManifest is set up for development and there is no way to know at build time that you plan to use OVRMonitor. We are working with Unity to get a less heavy-handed approach in place to give devs more control over the permissions, intent categories, etc. Right now, the best workflow is unfortunately this. You can use APKTool to decompile your APK, modify the manifest however you want, and re-pack it.

I think that edit the "OVRPlugin.aar" and remove the permission from it would be better - as it's a one time change.
Thanks

Update:
I tried to upload an APK without the permission to the store, and I got this error:
"APK Validation Failed
APK is missing required permission `android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE`."

So this permission is a must.

Sorry, talking to the submission tool team about this now. I believe it is not necessary at the SDK level, but it used to be, hence the requirement and default.

What is the current situation with this? We'd like to remove the READ/WRITE permissions, but when I do so I receive the 'Neither READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE nor WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions defined' error from the validation tool.

I'm talking to the team about removing this requirement.

Hi, I am currently preparing my app for submission to the store and also ran into this dreaded READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE problem. As of today, uploading the binary without this permission still fails. Is there a time frame when we can expect to get rid of the requirement? UX-wise, this is a really bad situation.

Thanks,
Kolja