I would agree with you except for the part where they force you to see them before you're allowed to even install an app. It's hard to get much less hidden than that.
It's not particularly useful if the permissions aren't displayed on lists and aren't searchable. The only option now is a brute force search by hand, clicking Install on each app in a category until you find a version of 2048 that doesn't demand SD card, camera, and full net access...
