A week or so ago I noticed that a new app (Android Web Services) which I'd never noticed before had appeared AND some standard Google Play Permissions (or some other similar system app) had REGRANTED ITS OWN PERMISSIONS. I had disabled all the system permissions in the normal "Apps>Permissions" simple access area for system apps 2 weeks before. This angered me that the permission had been reenabled, and that a new app had appeared (along with a top-down pop-up notification of some sort I'd never seen before) -- seemingly only because I'd finally bought and used some mobile data after months of only WI-FI.

Anyway, that the back story of how I decided to go through this new system that seemed to have appeared. I don't know if it was an android update and the system only uses numbers and there is no install date of the current version. Anyway... in this "new system" as I call it (because of the strange notification which I don't remember what it said), I noticed some advanced "enable/disable/draw over/ and other stuff" which I'd never seen before. These are not if the "Apps>Permissions" area, but scattered through other parts of the Settings consol.

So I went through these system apps and anything Google or Huawei, and I disabled pretty much everything in an attempt to prevent unauthorized takeovers of my device by the companies which seemed to have been overstepping their bounds.

Now... here's the problem. It's much simpler:
When you swipe down there is a title area of two rows of icons at the top including such things as "mobile data", "hot spot", "location", "flashlight", etc. These seem to work fine except for the "Hot Spot" tile button.
For some reason, pressing it can not activate the hot spot, nor deactivate the hot spot. Only by going into Settings>Wireless & Networks>Hot Spot can it be turned on or off.

The question is, Which of the many deep in settings (Not in Apps>Permissions) have I disabled which knocked this HotSpot Tile out of service. Is is google play services, is it Huawei services, is it something else. Does anybody know?

If that still doesn't make sense, I'll try one more set of words:
What connects the titles from the swipe down menu to the hot-spot setting. Did I disable "Can write to system settings" for something which should have that ability, or another ability? I don't know. Do you?

 

SOLVED:

Settings>Apps>System UI>

Scroll to the bottom of System UI,
under "Write System Settings" It was set to "No" as I'd set it. Click it, and activate the "Allow write system settings". This immediately fixed the ~broken tiles Hot Spot button. For some other reason if you go back to the previous System UI app settings it did NOT UPDATE TO SAY THAT THE PERMISSION TO WRITE SYSTEM SETTINGS HAS BEEN ACTIVATED, yet it is active if you click that setting, as if to change it or in my case to check it.

Restarted device, app settings page for System UI now DOES show "Write system settings" is set to "Yes"... and apparently also it decided on it's own to also activate the setting above that (for "Draw over other apps" which I had not manually reactivated).

Hot Spot Tile-button issues fixed, restored, and resolved.

Privacy and undesired updates issue remains mysterious.

"Repeat! Issue Remains Mysterious"
~Indeep EndanceDay

 

Yeah

It's a good thing they used to be good .


Otherwise, we're looking at a black mirror.

 

DONT KICK THE PUPPY!!!

It was a system app. Then the February 1st security update which made my password 6 digits instead of 4 (AND WONT GO AWAY EVEN AFTER FACTORY RESET - no nothing was "restored"). It also changed WebView to display at the top the regular apps list. That is how I noticed it in the first place. Only after that triggered me to wonder what the hell was happening did I go on a quest to remove the invasive forces on my device. It must have been a mistake as later unnotified changes have occurred in subsequent weeks, including it's return to the System Processes list which I only know exists because it was in the wrong place in the first place. While I can't be absolutely sure they didn't exist before hand, I'd never before been able to find and use such things as "networked apps" and "change system settings" permissions.

By the way, back to the top topic, allowing System UI (strangely also not a system app) to change system settings, seems to be the thing which both solves my problem and might have repeatedly allowed "Calendar storage" to have "contacts" permission. That's neither here not here, but something to watch out for if anyone else is trying to halt the invasion of the evil machine on OUR androids (No Google! It does not belong to you unless you're taking it by force of power, like an armed highway robber. ...and yes, you should ALWAYS ask before installing anything. )

If apps with more control than users helps stop the puppykickers from kicking the puppies then, well -- it's a tough decision.
That kind of power is unlikely to be safe forever