I do agree with this.
My hunch is that this is about compliance and not about direct end-use need. Every once in a while we'll talk to an organization that has a checklist related to section 508 or an equivalent accessibility law and wants to use alt tags. As far as I know, all of these laws mandate that alternate text be available somewhere but none of them mandates use of the alt tag. Some organizations or departments may have more restrictive requirements, however. Kobo team, have you been working with an organization like that by any chance?
Agreed, and so far all of the users who have brought this up to us have been able to find a suitable way to describe their visual content in a way that would be both accessible to screen readers and helpful to sighted users. Using the alt tag has not been a deal breaker. I can imagine that for some organizations it might be.
I'll admit I've gone back and forth on this as we've talked to organizations with related requirements. If you or someone you know is a screen reader user who uses ODK forms, we'd love to talk to you about your experience and needs! @Tino_Kreutzer @Xiphware, if you have such connections, please feel free to get us in touch.