Collecting profile pics, posts, likes, and so on, is basically what is needed to federate. If they don't collect that, they can't display things from other instances.
And guess what our instances will collect the same data from Threads to be able to display stuff from there...
Threads' New Terms & Conditions Affects the Fediverse ( wedistribute.org )
Threads, Meta's new microblogging platform, is updating its terms to focus on data collection from "Third Party Users".