[dev here] The Internet access is required only for the daily wallpapers and nothing else. The messages pop up based on date. Many users seem to like it but if I hear any more complaints, I'll consider removing them.
I think you should mention the differences b/w Olauncher and your launcher in the readme. That will make it clear to people why they should give this a try.
[Olauncher dev here] There's no Firebase integration in the Olauncher and never was. It literally collects no data. The releases on the Play Store, F-Droid and Github releases [APK] are all built from the same codebase, which is available on Github. Not sure why it's flagged.