Just to note. It isn't that Ubuntu isn't good cause it is, it's that people tend to like certain distributions because of how they do things.
The 'spyware' that Richard Stallman is talking about can be easily uninstalled. However, Canonical was stupid to have it as an opt-out it should have been opt-in if they wanted to do it.
The biggest issue imo is it breeds mistrust in the system. You used to be able to tell people to install "Linux" to get away from spying, and malware hassles, and now that comes with caveats. It's like downloading some kind of freeware, where you have to tell people to pay attention, or they'll get stuck with some crappy toolbar in their browser. For many people, Ubuntu="Linux"(GNU/Linux), so all the distributions are potentially contaminated by Ubuntu's issues.
It's fine that features like this can be removed, but that adds complexity, and little value for the user. I agree with the opt-in recommendation. That way nothing special has to be done to keep privacy, but those that want the feature can easily enable it.